Rio Olympian Sudha Singh claims 3000m steeplechase gold at National Athletics Championships

Patiala: Competing in her first event since the Rio Olympics, Sudha Singh claimed a gold medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase on the third day of the 21st Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships in Patiala on Saturday. Sudha clocked 10 minutes 03.01 seconds to finish over a hundred meters ahead of Uttar Pradesh state-mate Parul Chaudhary (10:18.10). Another Uttar Pradesh athlete Chinta Yadav claimed bronze with a time of 10:21.20. [caption id=“attachment_3514971” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of India’s Sudha Singh. Reuters[/caption] In the men’s 3000m steeplechase event, it was Naveen Kumar of Haryana who took the gold with a time of 8:50.85. Kumar finished ahead of Durga Bahadur Budha (8:52.81) of Uttarakhand and Jaiveer Singh (8:57.72) of Haryana. B Chethan claimed the men’s high jump gold, requiring fewer jumps to clear 2.18m as compared to Ajay Kumar of Haryana who took the silver. Sarvesh Kushare of Maharashtra claimed bronze with a best effort of 2.13m. National record holder Tejaswin Shankar had to be satisfied with a fifth place finish with a best jump of 2.10m. K M Sangeeta of Uttar Pradesh clinched the gold in the women’s pole vault, clearing a height of 3.70m. She was followed by K C Dija and Mariya Jaison, both from Kerala. In the women’s triple jump, N V Sheena of Kerala took the gold with a best jump of 13.31m. She was followed on the podium by Joyline Mural Lobo, representing Karnataka with a 12.99m effort. Bhairabi Roy of West Bengal claimed bronze with a best effort of 12.92m. In men’s discus throw, Dharamraj Yadav of Uttar Pradesh missed out on a meet record (59.55m), but his effort of 58.32m was enough to clinch gold. He finished ahead of Kirpal Singh (55.43m) and Baljinder Singh (54.23m) both from Punjab. In the morning session, Sandeep Kumar, who competed at the Rio Olympics in the 50km race walk category, clinched a gold medal in the 20km event with a time of 1:27.43.28. He finished ahead of Sunil Rathee of Haryana who clocked 1:27.49.39 and Chandan Singh of Uttarakhand who crossed the finish line in 1:28.28.14.