National Inter-State Athletics Championships: Triple-jumper Arpinder Singh wins gold but fails to touch Worlds qualifying mark

Lucknow: Asian Games gold medalist triple jumper Arpinder Singh won the gold but failed to touch the World Championships qualifying mark on the second day of 59th National Inter-State Athletics Championships on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_5073201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Arpinder Singh. AP[/caption] Arpinder managed the season’s best jump of 16.83m, 12cm short of World Championship qualifying standard of 16.95m under hot and humid conditions at the PAC Stadium. Karnataka’s U Karthik and Tamil Nadu’s Mohammed Salahuddin took the silver and bronze respectively with jumps of 16.0m and 16.79m. The 26-year-old Arpinder, who has a personal best of 17.17m (of 2014), will have another shot at World Championships qualification in the Indian Grand Prix in New Delhi on 5 September. None of the Indians could come close to the qualifying marks of the World Championships to be held in Doha from 28 September to 6 October. Balakumar Nithin and Alex Antony won the men’s 200m and 400m gold respectively in the absence of top runners. Having won the sprint double in the Khelo India Youth Games in Pune earlier this year, Nithin’s winning time of 20.91 seconds here was the third-best on the list among Indians over the 200m this year. Only Arokia Rajiv and Muhammed Anas Yahiya both 400m specialists — have run faster in 200m than the bespectacled sprinter from Tamil Nadu. The 200m qualifying time for the World Championships is 20.40. Kerala runner Alex, who first gave glimpses of his potential with a 46.66 second run in the Indian Grand Prix V in Patiala earlier this month, improved his personal best with a 46.17 second effort. It’s creditable that he won a race that included runners of the caliber of Ayyasamy Dharun (400m hurdles national record holder) and Tamilarasan Santhosh. Dharun and Santhosh finished fifth and seventh while Haryana’s Harsh Baljeet Singh and Karnataka’s Sachin Roby took the silver and bronze respectively by finishing inside 47 seconds. Kunhu Mohammed, who has been part of the Indian 4x400m relay team, was unable to go past the semi-final run in the morning, clocking 47.69 to finish third in his heats. Iranian Mahdi Pirjahan won the men’s 400m hurdles in new meet record time of 49.33 seconds. The Athletics Federation of India had invited some foreign athletes for the meet. PU Chithra won the women’s 800m in her personal best time of 2:02.96 while Mohammed Afsal pocketed the gold in men’s 800m in the absence of Manjit Singh and Jinson Johnson with the year’s best by an Indian, clocking 1:48.35. The Results (all finals): Men: 200m: 1. Balakumar Nithin (Tamil Nadu) 20.91 seconds; 2. Akshay Nain (Delhi) 21.39; 3. Abhinav Panwar (Delhi) 21.47. 400m: 1. Alex A Antony (Kerala) 46.17 seconds; 2. Harsh Baljeet Singh (Haryana) 46.64; 3. Sachin Roby (Karnataka) 46.96. 800m: 1. Mohammed Afsal (Kerala) 1:48.35; 2. Mujamil Ameer (Tamil Nadu) 1:49.03; 3. Ankit (Haryana) 1:49.95. 400m Hurdles: 1. Mahdi Pirjahan (Iran) 49.33 seconds; 2. Jagdeesh Chandra (Karnataka) 50.85; 3. Jithin Paul (Kerala) 50,92. Triple Jump: 1. Arpinder Singh (Punjab) 16.83m; 2. Karthik U (Karnataka) 16.80; 3. Salahuddin Mohammed (Tamil Nadu) 16.79. Shot put: 1. Inderjeet Singh (Haryana) 19.73m; 2. Jasdeep Dhillon (Punjab) 17.77; 3. Shakti Rathore (Rajasthan) 17.20. Decathlon: 1. Gurpreet Singh (Chandigarh) 6667 points; 2. Durai Murugan (Tamil Nadu) 66621; 3. Krishna Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 6587. 20km walk: 1. Sandeep Kumar (Haryana) 1:27:25.47; 2, KT Irfan (Kerala) 1:28:20:94; 3. Chandan Singh (Uttarakhand) 1:28:21.29. Women: 800m: 1. P U Chitra (Kerala) 2:02.96; 2. Jessy Joseph (Kerala) 2:07.09; 3. Pramila Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 2:07.62. 400m Hurdles: 1. Arpitha Manjunatha (Karnataka) 59.98 seconds; 2. Aarthi (Tamil Nadu) 1:00.48; 3. Dhivya (Tamil Nadu) 1:01.06. Long Jump: 1. Nayana James (Tamil Nadu) 6.20m; 2. Priyanka Kerketta (Jharkhand) 6.13; 3. Harshini Saravanan (Tamil Nadu) 6.07.