Chennai, Jun 14: Tamil Nadu’s Praveen Chitravel produced the third longest-ever jump by an Indian with a stunning effort of 17.18m to clinch gold and qualify for the World Championships on the concluding day of National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here.
The 21-year-old Chitravel crossed the World Championships qualifying mark of 17.14m with a leap of 17.18m in his second attempt. The World Championships will be held in Eugene, USA, from July 15-24.
Abdulla Aboobacker of Kerala, who won the silver on Tuesday with jump of 7.14m, has already qualified for the Worlds.
Chitravel’s effort was behind the 17.30m national record of Renjith Maheswary (in 2016) and the 17.19m effort of Aboobacker while winning gold in the Indian Grand Prix 3 in Bhubaneswar last month.
Eldhouse Paul of Kerala, who was third with an effort of 16.81m, also crossed the Commonwealth Games qualifying distance of 16.56m set by Athletics Federation of India.
“I got injured during a competition in Italy and I recovered only two weeks ago. So, I did not train at all and am directly participating in this competition,” Chitravel said.
“Two weeks ago, I was able to walk. I am competing here only because of my physios. So, I did not have any expectations. I just prayed to God and jumped.”
Karnataka’s Aishwarya Babu clinched her second gold in two days by winning the women’s long jump with a best effort of 6.60m. She had jumped 6.73m during the qualification round on Sunday, the second best ever by an Indian. Aishwarya had smashed the triple jump national record with an effort of 14.14m on Monday.
Kerala’s Ancy Sojan (6.49m) and Sruthillekshmi (6.35m) were second and third respectively. Shaili Singh of Uttar Pradesh, who had won a silver in the World Junior Championships last year, was fourth with a best jump of 6.26m.
Assam’s Amlan Borgohain claimed a sprint double by clinching the men’s 200m gold in addition to the yellow metal he had won in the 100m dash.
The 24-year-old Borgohain clocked 21.00s to win the final race, nearly half a second below his national record of 20.52s he had set in April.
Karnataka’s Abhin Devadiga (21.42) and Maharashtra’s Rahul Ramesh Kadam (21.68) won the silver and bronze respectively. The CWG qualifying mark set by the AFI is 20.15s.
In women’s 200m, Tamil Nadu’s S Dhanalakshmi beat 100m gold winner Assam’s Hima Das to the second place with a time of 23.27s. Hima, who holds the national record of 23.10s, clocked 23.29s, while Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra took the bronze in 23.72m.
The CWG qualifying time for women’s 200m is 22.70s.
Sanjivani Jadhav of Maharashtra clinched her second gold of the championships as she won the women’s 5000m event with a time of 16:11.46, while Harendra Kumar of Delhi won the men’s 5000m gold with a time of 14:01.50.
Tamil Nadu won the team championships. (PTI)
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