Rupal stuns Vithya; Dev Meena sets National Pole vault record
Vithya, Aldrin upset; Meena tops own mark
Kochi: Two stunning upsets and a national record-breaking performance summed up the action on Day 2 of the 28th
National Federation Senior Athletics Competition
here at the Maharaja's College Stadium on Tuesday.
In the women's 400m, hot favourite
Vithya Ramraj
of Tamil Nadu was beaten by Uttar Pradesh's
Rupal
, while national record holder in
long jump
,
Jeswin Aldrin
, continued his poor form and settled for a silver behind David P of Tamil Nadu.
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Towards the end of the day,
Dev Meena
of Madhya Pradesh bettered his own national and meet record in the men's pole vault with an effort of 5.35m. However, Meena decided not to attempt the Asian meet qualification mark of 5.51m due to low light and slight drizzle.
It all looked good for Vithya at the start as she was leading the first 300m of the 400m race. However, a desperate surge from Rupal (52.55s) saw her pushing Vithya (52.81s) back to the second spot in the final 70m and grab gold. Kerala's Sneha K earned bronze, finishing in 53 seconds.
The event also saw six athletes, including Kerala's Jisna Mathew, Tamil Nadu's Subha Venkatesan, and Gujarat's Devyaniba Mahendras, attain
Asian Championship qualification
marks. 'I was a bit nervous at the start and because of that, I was a bit slow in the beginning of the race.
Yet, I was able to beat Vithya. She pushed me hard and gave me a good fight,' said Rupal. Relatively unknown David P of Tamil Nadu sprang a surprise in the jumping pit by leaping to 7.94m to stun Aldrin. Aldrin, who opted out of his last three jumps, could only manage 7.83m.
Aldrin's training partner and local boy Muhammed Anees Yahiya (7.70m) came third. Aldrin, who was pushed back to seventh place in the Indian Open last week after suffering a hamstring injury during the competition, said he was yet to recover from the injury and decided to compete in Kochi only because of the selection for the Asian Championships.
However, none among the competitors in long jump managed to achieve the Asian Championships qualification standard. The winner, David, himself was disappointed with the distance he achieved.
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