National Open Athletics: Praveen, Amlan prove their worth in jump, sprint events

Meanwhile, Sarita came up with a 59.58m effort on her last try to edge Railways’ team-mate Jyoti Jakhar to third place.

Amlan clocked a sensational time of 20.75 seconds, the second-fastest by an Indian, to win the men’s 200m final in style. Only Muhammed Anas Yahia (20.63s), Dharambir Singh (20.66s), Arokia Rajiv (20.66s) and now retired and Olympian Anil Kumar (20.73s) have run a faster time in the history of Indian athletics.

It was the 23-year-old’s first 200m race at the national level.

Amlan who has been living in Hyderabad since 2014, took off the blocks well and sped ahead of the pack taking lead soon after the 100m-mark and leaving his rivals gasping in the last 10m to finish first in a new meet record of 20.75 seconds.

At the same time on jump pit, Praveen only 20 and a 2018 Buenos Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist, opened with a 16.88m almost killed the competition before Abdulla Aboobacker (16.84m) and Karthik Unnikrishnan (16.80m) of Services made it an intense one. For the three medallists, it was their personal bests.

Praveen is now third behind national champions Renjit Maheswary (17.30m) and Arpinder Singh (17.17m).

“What an outstanding performance,” Maheswary told indianexpress.com after following the performance. “Bring them together, train them under a coach, they will bring anything for the country. I’ll bet,” exulted the 2016 Rio Olympian and national holder.

2018 Jakarta Asian Games gold medallist Arpinder Singh, who is competing for the first time after recovering from injury, was sixth with a best effort of 15.91m.

In the morning, Kartik Kumar of Services and Sanjivani Jadhav of Maharashtra claimed gold in the 10,000m events on the final day.

Archana Suseendran of Tamil Nadu claimed the women’s 200m sprint gold and prevented Taranjeet Kaur of Delhi from racing away with the sprint double. The Delhi teenager fought hard to bridge the gap and ended up with a maiden sub-24-second effort, finishing just six-hundredths of a second behind Archana.

RESULTS

MEN

200m: Amlan Borgohain (Assam, 20.75s NMR OMR 20.92s set by S Arunjith in Jamshedpur, 2007), Balakumar Nitin (TN, 21.06s), Nalabothu Shamugha Srinivas (AP, 21.12s).

10,000m: Kartik Kumar (Services, 29 min 42.63s), Dharmender (Ser, 29:49.56), Shrawan Kumar Beniwal (Haryana, 30:01.87s.

Hammer throw: Damneet Singh (Punjab, 65.65m), Bajinder Singh (Pun, 63.29s), Sukhdev Singh (Rlys, 63.18s).

Triple jump: Praveen Chithravel (TN, 16.88m), Abdulla Aboobacker (Ser, 16.84m), Karthik Unnikrishnan (Ser, 16.80).

4x400m relay: Haryana (Pankaj, Sachin, Ayush Dabas, Vikrant Panchal) 3:087.86; 2. Services 3:09.13; 3. Punjab 3:11.29.

WOMEN

200m: Archana Suseendran (TN, 23.58s), Taranjeet Kaur (Delhi, 23.64s), Chandra Lekha (Rlys, 24.35s).

10,000m: Sanjivani Jadhav (Mahrashtra, 34:20.03s), Kavita Yadav (Rlys, 35:57.46s), Jyoti (UP, 36:37.90s).

Hammer throw: Manju Bala Singh (Raj, 64.42m NMR, OMR 61.67m set by Hardeep Kaur, in Delhi, 2002); Sarita Romit Singh (Rlys, 59.58m), Jyoti Rana (Rlys, 58.36m).

Discus throw: Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (Punjab, 54.49m), Nidhi Rani (Rlys, 50.87m), Gurveer Kaur (Punjab, 48.66m).
4x400m relay: Haryana (Nancy, Nisha, Nanhi, Kavita, 3:42.82s); All India Police (3:43.01s), Delhi 3:43.13.