New Delhi: Railways’ Sharuk Khan produced an impressive performance to win the men’s 3,000m steeplechase but narrowly missed Avinash Sable’s meet record on the final day of the National Open Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.
There was a close contest between Sharuk and fellow Railways runner Prince Raj Mishra. Sharuk pushed himself in the final lap to clock 8min, 30.54secs, while Prince was second in 8:31.38secs. Sumit Rathee of ONGC was third in 8:36.17s. The trio recorded personal bests.
The 20-year-old Sharuk came close to Sable’s meet record of 8:29.80, set in 2018. Sable’s national record is 8:09.91. Sable, the 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, returned to competition after a lengthy layoff following ACL surgery and competed at the Asian Games. He clocked a season’s best of 8:21.67 in Aichi-Nagoya to finish fourth.
“I pushed myself in the last two laps but narrowly missed the meet record. Still it will give me a lot of confidence going into a new season. I will work in the off season and improve on my personal best,” said Sharuk.
The women’s 3,000m steeplechase saw Ankita Dhyani won with a meet record, clocking 9min, 34.86secs. She bettered Lalita Babar’s 11-year-old mark of 9:39.83. Representing Railways, Ankita had little competition with no athlete able to push her unlike the close men’s race. Mori Vandana Bharat of Gujarat finished second in 10:00.02s, while Komal Jagdale of Railways took third in 10:05.34.
“There was nobody to challenge me, or else I could have clocked a better timing,” said Ankita, who had won silver in the World University Games last year.
A strong Railways quartet of Sonia Baishya, Gowrinandana, Himanshi Malik and Kiran Pahal won the women’s 4x400m relay in 3:38.40, beating Haryana, who clocked 3:40.29.
Aditya of Haryana won the men’s javelin throw with a modest effort of 79.40m. Anand Singh Singh of Services (SSCB) was second with 77.77m, while Arshdeep Singh of Railways was third (77.56m). Asian Games silver and bronze medallists Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav skipped the meet.
Mohd Sazid of SSCB won the men’s long jump gold with a leap of 7.99m.
Lili Das of Railways won the women’s 800m in 2:05.37, narrowly ahead of V Kavitha of Tamil Nadu (2:05.58) and Thota Sankeertana of Chhattisgarh (2:05.70).
Jishnu Prasad of All India Police set a meet record in the men’s 200m, clocking 20.62secs for victory. The previous record of 20.66secs belonged to B. Nithin. Abhin Devadiga of Railways finished second in 20.91s and Adesh Garsa came third (20.96).
Race walk
Seasoned race walker Sandeep Kumar won the men’s marathon race walk. The Haryana athlete, a two-time Olympian and bronze medallist in the 10km race walk at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, completed the 42.195km distance in 3:19:52. He finished ahead of Vishvendra Singh of Madhya Pradesh (3:21:11) and Resham Midhun of SSCB (3:22:46).
Six athletes failed to finish the race, including Ram Baboo, whose national record stands at 3:09:17. With just over 3km to go, Ram did not have enough left to finish in humid conditions.
The women’s marathon race walk was won by Ramandeep Kaur of Railways in 3:59:23. She comfortably beat Rajasthan’s Sonal Sukhwal (4:16:06) and Deepika Sharma (4:22:55). Only five athletes competed, with two walkers failing to finish.
