Long-distance runners Kartik Kumar and Sanjivani Baburao Jadhav as well Pole Vaulter Rosy Meena Paul Raj came up with personal best efforts to claim gold medals on an action-packed opening day of the 25th AFI Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships here at the C.H. Muhammed Koya Stadium here on Saturday.
Kartik Kumar established himself as one of India's brightest long-distance runners with a maiden Federation Cup 10000m gold medal by clocking 29:20.21s. A bronze medalist in the Asian Junior Championships in Gifu in 2018 and 12th in the World U20 Championships in Tampere later that year, he clocked his personal best time to attain a fine victory on Saturday.
Kartik, who is from the Services, produced the fastest time by an Indian in AFI competitions since Murli Kumar Gavit's 28:38.34 in the Asian Championships in Doha in April 2019. Maharashtra's Adesh Yadav, who set an Inter-University record of 28:15.46 in Moodbidri on January 4 this year, had not entered the Federation Cup competition.
The 22-year-old positioned himself in the lead bunch through the race, pulling away with four laps to go and building a sufficient lead to hold back a late sprint by Sawan Barwal (Himachal Pradesh). The effort on the final lap got Barwal past Kartik Kumar's team-mate Gulveer Singh but left him with no reserves to break the beam in the first place.
Kartik Kumar finished sixth in 2019 and second to Abhishek Pal last year but established the year's fastest time by an Indian over the distance when he won the National Open Championships in Warangal.
In the women's 10000m, Sanjivani Babur Jadav pulled away from Seema (Himachal Pradesh) after 10 laps to get a personal best time. Her previous best was 33:14.16 clocked in the inter-university championships in Guntur in December 2017. On Saturday, the 25-year-old finished 1 minute 3 seconds off the 32:10.18 set by AFI as the Asian Games qualifying mark.
Rosy Meena Paulraj (Tamil Nadu) became only the fifth Indian woman Pole Vaulter to clear 4.00m to win gold from her team-mate Baranica Elangovan by 10cm. Haryana's Pooja, with a personal best of 3.95m earlier this year, cleared 3.80m to take the bronze and watch the two Tamil Nadu athletes battle for top honours.
Aishwarya Kailash Mishra (Maharashtra) ran a sensational race in the women's 400m heats, clocking a personal best time of 52.41 seconds. Running her first national-level race in more than a year since she finished fourth in the Federation Cup in Patiala last year when she clocked her previous best of 54.60, she left Jisna Mathew in her wake.
Aishwarya Mishra's time earned her place among the top 10 Indian women quarter milers in the past decade and is the second-fastest this year behind the 52.37 that Priya H Mohan clocked in the Indian Grand Prix 1 in Thiruvananthapuram. The experienced MR Poovamma held her own as she won her heats with a measure of comfort, clocking 53.83 seconds.
Amoj Jacob (Delhi), Muhammed Ajmal (Kerala) and two Tamil Nadu athletes Rajesh Ramesh and T Santhosh Kumar produced sub-47-second times while Noah Nirmal Tom (Kerala) came home in 47.00 in the 400m semifinals to raise expectations of a keen contest for the men's quarter-mile medals. The seasoned Arokia Rajiv missed out on a place in the final.
M Sreeshankar (Kerala) laid down the gauntlet in the men's Long Jump qualifying with a leap of 8.09m. Jeswin Aldrin, jumping with a 2.4mps wind assisting him, hit the sand at 7.94m to raise expectations of a thrilling final on Sunday afternoon.
The morning session was marked by Tamil Nadu's A Vignesh and G Kathiravan leaving the established sprinter Gurindervir Singh in third place in the 100m heats. Gurindervir did not start the semifinals where another Tamil Nadu sprinter B Siva Kumar emerged the fastest of the qualifiers with a time of 10.47 seconds.
Stalin Joes (Tamil Nadu) rode on his sprinting skills to hold a slender four-point lead over Boota Singh (Haryana) at the end of five events in the Decathlon. With an 11.24 second 100m dash, a 6.95m Long Jump and a 51.96 second 400m run, he was able to paper over a 10.31m Shot Put effort that set him back considerably. He also had a 1.77m High Jump.
( With inputs from ANI )
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