RANCHI: Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh lit up the opening day of the National Senior Athletics Federation Competition at Birsa Munda Stadium, Morabadi, on Friday as they reduced the men's 100m national record by 0.03 seconds within a matter of minutes.
Competing in the opening semifinal, Gurindervir first ran 10.17 seconds to better Animesh's national record of 10.18 seconds. But within minutes, Animesh, running in the second semifinal, crossed the finish line in 10.15 seconds to reclaim the national record while breaching the qualifying mark for the Commonwealth Games.
Interestingly, Gurindervir held himself back in the last part of the race and later said, "I ran the first 80m."
As for coach James Hillier, he believes Gurindervir can go even faster in the final on Saturday, but is excited to see two of his pupils getting the best out of each other. "It's kind of what I was talking about a couple of years ago. They've started to break each other's records, and 10.1 seconds is now within reach. It's very exciting. Everything is beginning to come together for these guys, and they're starting to believe that 10.1 seconds is no longer impossible," said Hillier.
While there were no other national records on the opening day, Seema Kaliramna grabbed CWG qualification in the women's discus throw with a gold-winning effort of 57.29m. Ancy Sojan won gold in the women's long jump with a best effort of 6.75m, a meet record, but fell short of the CWG qualifying mark of 6.84m. Shaili Singh (6.58m) came second, while Bhavani Yadav Bhagav (6.39m) finished third.
Tejaswin Shankar was on a different level in the decathlon. He began the day by winning the 100m dash in 10.766 seconds (personal best), followed it up with a personal best leap of 7.67m in the long jump, and then registered his best throw of 13.31m in shot put. In the evening, he cleared 2.25m with ease in the high jump, then ran a personal best of 48.29 seconds in the 400m to finish the day with 4511 points.
Earlier, Bihar's Vibhaskar Kumar produced the biggest shock by winning his 100m heat in 10.36 seconds, the fastest qualifying time. The 22-year-old had a best of 10.57 seconds before this performance, which also helped him qualify for the U23 Asian Athletics Championships. In the semifinals, he impressed with 10.38 seconds to finish second and make the final.
The men's 400m event saw strong performances, with five athletes — Vishal TK, Rajesh Ramesh, Jay Kumar, Manu TS, and Dharamveer Chaudhary — going sub-46 seconds across three semifinal heats.
Ashish Jakhar won the men's hammer throw with 68.52m. In the last two events, the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase were won by Haryana's Balkishan (8:56.01) and Uttarakhand's Ankita (9:48.16) respectively.
Results (Day 1): Men: 10,000m: Deepak Bhatt (Uttarakhand) 29:42.93, Shailesh Kushwaha (Karnataka) 29:57.56, Prashant Choudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 30:36.97; 3,000m steeplechase: Balkishan (Haryana) 8:56.01, Sharuk Khan (Uttar Pradesh) 8:56.63, Sunil Joliya (Gujarat) 8:58.38; Hammer throw: Ashish Jakhar (SSCB) 68.52m, Damneet Singh (Reliance) 67.62m, Ajay Kumar (Haryana) 64.93m.
Women: 10,000m: Ravina Gayakwad (Maharashtra) 35:30.98, Soniya (Uttarakhand) 36:16.22, Aarti Pawara (Maharashtra) 36:24.79; 3,000m steeplechase: Ankita (Uttarakhand) 9:48.16, Prachi Devkar (IOCL) 10:16.29, Anju (Haryana) 10:28.23; Long jump: Ancy Sojan (Navy) 6.75m (MR), Shaili Singh (Anju Bobby George Academy) 6.58m, Bhavani Yadav (NCOE Bengaluru) 6.39m; Discus throw: Seema (JSW) 57.29m, Nidhi Rani (Haryana) 55.05m, Krishna Jayashankar (Reliance) 55m.
