New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh 24 years old Gulveer Singh became the first athlete to book ticket to compete at the Asian Athletics Championships scheduled to be held from July 12 to 16 in Bangkok, Thailand.
On Monday, the opening day of the 26th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Stadium, Gulveer Singh won men’s 10,000m gold with a time of 29:05.90 seconds, which was better than the Asian Athletics Championship qualifying time of 29:30.
What was more heartening, the top eleven athletes in the 25-lap race dipped below the Asian athletics qualification time of 29 minutes 30 seconds. Gujarat’s international runner Murli Kumar Gavit, who finished 11th in the field of 35 athletes, clocked 29:27.76 secs.
Of the forty-five athletes who started the race, 10 athletes did not finish.
The women’s 10,000m race was start to finish for Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav. Her gold medal winning time of 33:32.73 secs was nearly 30 seconds slower than the Asian qualifying time of 33 minutes. Of the five athletes that took the field only four finished the race.
Away from the track race, Uttar Pradesh’s Tanya Chaudhary won gold medal in the women’s hammer throw with a distance of 60.54m. But she missed the Asian qualification standard of 62.03m.
Tanya had a series of 57.39m, 51.76m, 55.73m, no mark, 60.54m and no mark.
While international thrower Sarita R Singh also of UP finished a close second with a throw of 60.45m. Punjab’s Manpreet Kaur was third at 57.08m.
There was excitement in the men’s 1500m heats as Haryana’s Aman topped his heat with a time of 3:46.04 seconds, which was better than the Asian athletics qualifying standard of 3:47.84 secs. Aman was among the 12 athletes, including 2018 Jakarta Asian Games 1500m champion, who made the cut for the final. Johnson finished second behind Aman in the heats with a time of 3:49.21 secs.
It was heartbreak for Delhi’s international quarter-miler Amoj Jacob as he strained his hamstring and pulled out of fifth and last heat.
While Rajesh Ramesh of Tamil Nadu breached the continental qualification mark of 46.17 seconds in the 400m semis. He clocked 46.13 secs.
In the women’s 400m heats, two athletes were successful in booking tickets for the Asian championship scheduled to be held in July in Thailand. Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra covered 400m in 52.85 seconds to better qualifying time of 53.54 secs, while in another heat R Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu crossed the finish line at 53.32 secs.
Kerala’s Maymon Poulose emerged the fastest runner in the morning 100m heats with a time of 10.54 secs. He further improved his time to 10.46 secs in the semis to advance to the final.
While national record holder Amiya Kumar Mallick of Odisha clocked 10.41 secs in the semis to stay on course for an exciting final.
Results (all finals)
Men
10,000m (Asian championship qualification time 29:30): Gulveer Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 29:05.90 seconds, Abhishek Pal (UP) 29:07.11 secs, Rohit Kumar (Delhi) 29:08.95 secs
Women
10,000m (Asian championship qualifying time 33:00.00):
Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra) 33:32.73 secs, Kavita Yadav (UP) 34:05.47 secs, Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 34:43.66 secs.
Hammer throw (Asian championship qualifying standard 62.03m)
Tanya Chaudhary (UP) 60.54m, Sarita R Singh (UP) 60.45m, Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) 57.08m.