Sarvesh Anil Kushare and Anjali Devi win the men's high jump and the women's 400m respectively.
Sarvesh Anil Kushare and Anjali Devi were the stars on the second day of the 58th National Open athletics championships, setting meet records en route gold medal in the men's high jump and the women's 400m on Wednesday.
Kushare, representing Services, leaped to a new personal best of 2.24m to erase the old meet record of 2.23m set by VS Yadav, set last year in Chennai. The 23-year-old Kushare's effort was a new personal best for him, eclipsing his previous best of 2.21m set at the same competition last year.
Kushare was the clear winner, beating Siddharth Yadav of Railways and B Chetan of Services by a comfortable margin. Both Yadav and Chetan recorded a best jump of 2.16m on the day, with the silver medal going to Yadav by virtue of fewer failed attempts.
Also setting a meet record on the day was Anjali Devi. The 20-year-old from Haryana clocked a time of 51.79 seconds to better the previous mark of 51.90 seconds recorded by former Asian Games silver medalist KM Beenamol at the 2002 edition of the tournament.
Anjali was also the clear winner in her competition, beating second-placed Prachi of Punjab (53.17 seconds) by nearly one and a half seconds.
Completing the podium was ChaviSehrawat of Railways who clocked a time of 53.54 seconds. Japan's Konomi Takesishi who was part of a three-member Japanese contingent at Bhubhaneswar finished sixth with a time of 55.01 seconds.
Among the other athletes to stand out at the Kalinga stadium were Sanjeet Kumar of Services and A Chandrelekha of Tamil Nadu who earned the title of the fastest man and woman of the meet after winning their respective 100m competitions.
Sanjeet clocked 10.39 seconds to finish just .02 seconds short of the meet record held by Anil Kumar since the 2001 edition of the tournament. Claiming second place was B Siva Kumar of Railways who recorded a time of 10.53 seconds. Vidya Sagar of Services stood on the third step of the podium after crossing the finishing line in 10.54 seconds.
In the women's 100m sprint, 21-year-old Chandralekha clocked a time of 11.47 seconds, to fall 0.05 seconds short of the meet record set by Saraswati Saha in the 2002 edition of the National Open Championships. The Tamil Nadu athlete though was well in front of statemate S Archana who clocked 11.71 seconds while Reena George of Karnataka took third place with a time of 11.75 seconds.
Asian Games bronze medalist PU Chitra too cemented her status as the premier 1500m runner in the country by claiming gold in the event in Bhubaneshwar. The 23-year-old, who was representing Railways, clocked 4:24:35 seconds to beat fellow Railways athlete Shipra Sarkar who clocked a time of 4:25:45 seconds while Bihar's Sugandha Kumari claimed a bronze medal with a time of 4:30.00 seconds.
Japan's Hitomi Shimura finished in second place in the women's 100m hurdles with a time of 13.74. She was behind C Kanimozhi of Tamil Nadu who clocked a time of 13.71 seconds. However as Shimura was not eligible to compete for a medal, the silver went instead to R Nithya of Tamil Nadu who clocked 13.99 seconds. Purnima Hembram who usually competes in the women's heptathlon picked up a bronze medal with a time of 14.02 seconds.
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 "Anjali Devi in action on Wednesday")
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