Haryana’s Nirmala stole the show scorching the worn out track in winning the women’s 400m with a stunning 51.28s ahead of M.R. Poovamma as the curtains came down on the 21st Federation Cup athletics championships at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports Complex here on Sunday.
On a day when Annu Rani won the women’s javelin gold with a national record 61.86m, it was Nirmala who created a splash by outclassing a strong field even without Jauna Murmu who was disqualified due to a false-start.
Nirmala comfortably came under the World Championship qualifying time of 52.50s. Though she easily bettered K.M. Beenamol’s meet record of 51.81s set in Chennai in 2002, Nirmala announced that she was eyeing Manjit Kaur’s national record of 51.05s set in Chennai in 2004; the Asian Championship in Bhubaneswar next month — on a better track — might present her with that opportunity.
Annu Rani improved on her own mark of 60.01m set in Lucknow last year, with her first throw of 61.86m. She followed that up with 60.58m, 58.83m and 59.44m, with two attempts ending as ‘no mark’.
Dutee Chand won the women’s 100m as expected, ahead of the 200m winner Srabani Nanda.
Amiya Kumar Mallick of Delhi won the men’s 100m with a 10.51s.
The Tamil Nadu duo of G. Lakshmanan and L. Suriya continued to dominate the 10,000m, winning the men’s and women’s golds as both pulled off the distance double.
There was more cheer for Tamil Nadu, as Prem Kumar, Suresh and T. Balamurugan swept the medals in the 110m hurdles.
Nayana James won the women’s 100m hurdles, to add to her long jump gold.
Jinson Johnson and P.U. Chitra won the men’s and women’s 1,500m respectively, while Swapna Barman won the women’s heptathlon with a total of 5,897 points.
The results:
Men: 100m: 1. Amiya Kumar Mallick 10.51s, 2. Jyotisankar Debnath 10.57, 3. Anuroop John 10.60. 400m: 1. Amoj Jacob 46.26s, 2. Arokia Rajiv 46.64, 3. Sachin Roby 46.87.
1,500m: 1. Jinson Johnson 3:48.49s, 2. Ajay Kumar Saroj 3:48.91, 3. Siddhanta Adhikari 3:50.84. 10,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan 29:23.46s, 2. Gopi Thonakal 29:55.67, 3. Kalidas Hirave 29:57.94. 110m hurdles: 1. Prem Kumar 14.34s, 2. Suresh 14.35, 3. T. Balamurugan 14.52. Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh 16.75m, 2. U. Karthik 16.37, 3. Malkit Singh 16.30. Hammer throw: 1. Niraj Kumar 66.09m, 2. Sukhdev Singh 64.06, 3. Bajinder Singh Baj 63.35.
Women: 100m: 1. Dutee Chand 11.48s, 2. Srabani Nanda 11.57, 3. Merlin Joseph 11.68. 400m: 1. Nirmala 50.28 (NMR; OR 51.81, K.M. Beenamol, Chennai, 2002), 2. M.R. Poovamma 52.70, 3. Debashree Mazumdar 53.59. 1,500m: 1. P.U. Chitra 4:26.48s, 2. Monika Choudhary 4:27.67, 3. Pramila Yadav 4:27.90. 10,000m: 1. L. Suriya 33:12.67s, 2. Sanjivani Jadhav 33:15.77, 3. Meenu 34:17.11. 100m hurdles: 1. Nayana James 13.96s, 2. Ankita Gosavi 14.00, 3. Prajna Prakash 14.03. Discus: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur Bal 54.33m, 2. Seema Punia 53.86, 3. Himani Singh 53.24. Javelin: 1. Annu Rani 61.86m (NR, OR: 60.01m, Annu Rani, Lucknow, 2016), 2. Poonam Rani Singh 55.79, 3. Suman Devi 55.03. Heptathlon: 1. Swapna Barman 5,897 points, 2. Purnima Hembram 5632, 3. Liksy Joseph 5476.