New Delhi: Dutee Chand blazed a New National Record in the women’s 100 metres sprint, clocking 11.33sec on the opening day of the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships here at the JN Stadium today.
The 20-year-old Chand smashed the 16-year-old record of Rachita Mistry (11.38sec), but missed the 2016 Olympics qualification berth by a hundredth of a second. Arch-rival Srabani Nanda finished behind with 11.45sec.
Overall, two new National records were created, including the other one in the men’s sprint, but none of the athletes achieved the qualification mark for Rio Games on Day 1 of the Championships.
Meanwhile, another Odisha athlete, Amiya Kumar Mallick sprinted to a New National Record in the men’s 100m, which he achieved in the semifinals, clocking 10.26sec, bettering the previous record of 10.30sec set by Abdul Najeeb Qureshi in 2010. However, in the finals, Mallick was slow off the blocks and could only finish fourth at 10.51sec, apparently due to a left hamstring pull Jyotishankar Debnath clinched the title of the ‘fastest man of the meet’, clocking 10.41sec.
Asian champion in shot put Inderjeet Singh, who made his first appearance in a competition at home after training in the US, had to settle for the second place behind the 22-year-old Tajinderpal Singh Toor. Inderjeet, wjho has already qualified for the Rio Olympics, managed just 19.17 metres in this meet, while Toor’s best throw was 19.93 metres; another strong aspirant for qualifying in this event for the 2016 Olympics, Om Prakash Karhana finished fourth with a best effort of 18.28 meres.
In the men’s javelin throw, strong favourites to qualify for Rio Olympics and 2016 SAF Games gold medalist, Neeraj Chopra did not start, while the event was won by Vipin Kasana with a best throw of 76.42 metres.
In the women’s 5000m, the opening event of the Championships, Suriya L created a New Meet Record, clocking 15:39.59s. In the men’s 5000m race, Lakshmanan G clocked 13:51.29s to finish on top of the podium.
The Federation Cup National Athletics championships is being hosted by the Delhi State Athletics Association, under the aegis of the Athletics Federation of India.
