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Rio ticket for Nirmala Sheoran

Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month's Rio Olympics after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m.

Hyderabad: Indian quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month’s Rio Olympics after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics championships at GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Friday. The Haryana girl led from start to finish and recorded a personal best of 51.48 secs, a time that earned her a ticket to Rio and erased the previous meet mark of 51.73 secs set by M.R. Poovamma in 2014. Nirmala became the 24th track and field athlete from India to qualify for the Rio Olympics after she surpassed the Olympic qualification mark of 52.20 secs.

Friday’s time put Nirmala fourth in the Indian all-time rankings behind Manjeet Kaur (51.04s, 2004), K.M. Beenamol (51.21s, 2000) and Chitra K. Soman (51.30s, 2004). P.T. Usha’s trainee Jisna Mathew (53.14 secs) and Tamil Nadu’s P.N. Souwndharya (53.85s) took the other medals of the day. Chandigarh boy Pankaj Malik romped home in the men’s 400m gold in 47.40 secs.

Hurdler Jithin Paul from Kerala, who was expected to qualify for Rio in men’s 400m hurdles could not make it. Having clocked a personal best of 49.79 secs earlier this month in Samorin, Slovakia, the qualifying mark of 49.40 secs looked well within his reach. However Jithin was a bit slower in the initial stages of the final and clocked 50.41 secs. Durgesh Kumar Pal, the inaugural Youth Olympic Games silver medallist, gave a tough fight to Jithin. However, he was tripped at the final hurdle to fall miserably before the finishing line.

Kerala M.P. Jabir (51.34s) and Tamil Nadu’s T. Santhosh Kumar (51.71s) were the other medallists. In long jump, Uttar Pradesh’s Yugant Shekhar Singh registered a personal best of 7.79m to pocket the gold. Muhammed Anees of Gujarat leapt 7.64m to take the silver while Karnataka’s S.E. Shamsheer got a bronze with an effort of 7.49m.

The results:

Men’s discus throw: 1. Kirpal Singh (Pun) 59.74 metres (new meet record — previous record in the name of Anil Kumar, Haryana, 59.70m) 2. Baljinder Singh (Pun) 54.08m, 3. Dharamraj Yadav (UP) 53.64m.

Men’s 400m: 1. Pankaj Malik (Chandigarh) 47.40 secs, 2. Noah Nirmal Tom (Ker) 47.47, 3. Nagarj Kudubhavi (Kar) 47.67.

Women’s 400m: 1. Nirmala (Har) 51.48 secs new meet record (previous record in the name of Poovamma, Kar, 51.73,) 2. Jisna Mathew (Ker) 53.14, 3. Sowndharya P.N. (TN) 53.85.

Men’s high jump: 1. Ajay Kumar (Har) 2.17m, 2. Ritesh Kumar (UP) 2.17m, 3. Jagdeep Singh (Pun) 2.17m.

Men’s long jump: 1. Yugant Shekhar (UP) 7.74m, 2. Muhammaed Anne (Guj) 7.64m, 3. Shamsheer S.E. (Kar) 7.49m.

Women’s discus throw: 1. Navjeet Kaur (Pun) 55.07m, 2. Sandeep Kumari (Har) 53.88m, 3. Kamal Preet Kaur (Pun) 50.02m.

Heptathlon: 1. Sindhu K.D. (Ker) 4441 points, 2. Kanimozhi (TN) 4235 points, 3. Anila Jose (Ker) 4189 points.

Men’s 400m hurdles: 1. Jithin Paul (Ker) 50.41 secs, 2. Jabir MP (Ker) 51.34, 3. Santhosh Kumar (TN) 51.71.

Men’s 4x100m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu 40.72 secs, 2. Kerala 41.12, 3. Manipur 41.35.

Women’s 4x100m relay: 1. Maharashtra 47.26 secs, 2. Karnataka 47.57, 3. Tamil Nadu 47.75.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
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