New Delhi: Odisha’s Animesh Kujur equalled the National Games record to claim the men’s 100m gold to grab headlines on the opening day of athletics competitions.
A total of 10 gold medals were on offer on Saturday, two each of which were won by Maharashtra and Services while Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu bagged one each.
With three gold medals, Services remained on top of the stands with 71 podium finishes (42 gold, 16 silver, 13 bronze), followed by Karnataka (30 gold, 12 silver, 16 bronze) and Maharashtra (25 gold, 42 silver, 46 bronze).
Madhya Pradesh are fourth with 19 gold, 13 silver, and 18 bronze medals, while Haryana are a spot below them with 18 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze, took the fifth spot as the top five remained unchanged though hosts Uttarakhand jumped four slots to sixth with 13 more medals, including six gold to have 61 medals (14 gold, 22 silver, 26 bronze).
Just short of personal best
The 21-year-old Kujur equalled the National Games’ best time of 10.28 seconds to win at the newly-laid athletics track in Dehradun, being .01 seconds behind his personal best.
He touched the National Games record of 10.28 seconds, which was set by Assam’s Amlan Borgohain on way to his gold-medal winning performance during the 2022 edition in Gujarat.
Last year, Kujur claimed the 100m silver medal at the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Championships. He beat Maharashtra’s Pranav Gurav, who grabbed silver with a timing 10.32 seconds, while Borgohain got bronze with 10.43 seconds.
Services’ Manikanta Hoblidhar, the national record holder at 10.23 seconds set in 2023, came in fifth with a timing of 10.46 seconds.
Maharashtra’s Sudeshna Shivankar won the women’s 100m gold with a timing 11.76 seconds, as Telengana’s Nithya Gandhe (11.79) and Tamil Nadu’s Giridharani Ravikumar (11.88) claimed silver and bronze, respectively.
Himachal Pradesh’s Sawan Barwal won the men’s 10,000m gold with a National Games record time of 28:49.93, improving on Gulveer Singh’s earlier mark of 28:54.29 set in 2022.
Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav won the women’s 10,000m final gold, clocking 33:33.47.
Animesh Kujur equalled the National Games’ best time of 10.28 seconds to win gold in Dehradun, though his effort was.01 seconds short of his personal best. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
