For a year and half, Dharun Ayyasamy was recovering from a serious stress fracture. Till a week back, he was down with typhoid.
On Thursday, the Mangalore University student set a new meet record, a new National record and qualified for the Commonwealth Games, clocking 49.45 seconds in the men’s 400m hurdles during the 22nd Federation Cup at the National Institute of Sports.
“I would only credit my training partners for all my achievement. They encouraged me, kept my spirits up the last one week, helped me in recovery and told me I could do it when I did not believe it myself. This is something special for me,” he told The Hindu.
His timing on Thursday was the exact qualifying mark set by the AFI for selection. In the process, he bettered the 11-year old record of 49.52 by Joseph Abraham.
Also achieving the qualifying mark was former National record holder and 2014 Glasgow bronze medallist Arpinder Singh with a jump of 16.61m, one centimetre more than the required distance. Arpinder was the only other athlete apart from Dharun to achieve the qualifying mark on the final day of competition.
Out for six months
His closest competitor and national and meet record holder Renjith Maheswary, going strong till his third jump, slipped on his fourth jump, suffered a patella dislocation on his left knee and a fracture on his right ring finger.
Rushed to the hospital, the medical reports were yet to come in in the evening but he is likely to be out of action for at least next 6-8 months. His 16.51 was good enough for a silver.
Coming close to the qualification was Jinson Jhonson in the 1500m with a timing of 3:39.69 against the required 3:39.50. It was good enough for a new meet record.
The biggest disappointment was 110m hurdler Siddhant Thingalaya, who could only manage 13.76s, slower than his own meet record, National record and the AFI mark but enough for gold.
The results: Men: 200m: 1. Siva Kumar 21.14s, 2. Sanjeet 21.53, 3. Manikanda Arumugan 21.61; 1500m: 1. Jinson Jhonson 3:39.69s, 2. Manjit Singh 3:42.24, 3. Bir Singh 3:42.28; 110m hurdles: 1. Siddhant Thingalaya 13.76s, 2. Maymon Poulose Maymon 14.08, 3. Shiva Kumar C 14.33; 400m hurdles: 1. Dharun Ayyasamy 49.45s, 2. Santhosh Kumar T 50.14, 3. M. Ramachandran 51.61; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Naveen Kumar Dagar 8:42.19s, 2. Avinash Sable 8:43.84, 3. Durga Bahadur Budha 8:43.85; Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh 16.61m, 2. Renjith Maheswary 16.51, 3. D. Arivuselvam 16.49; Hammer throw: 1. Ashish Jakhar 67.64m, 2. Sukhdev Singh 66.19, 3. Amandeep Singh 58.97.
Women: 200m: 1. Hima Das 23.37s, 2. Sneha P.J. 24.47, 3. Jauna Murmu 24.64; 1500m: 1. Chitra P.U. 4:15.25s, 2. Shipra Sarkar 4:18.55, 3. Harmilan Bains 4:21.19; 100m hurdles: 1. Sapna Kumari 13.61s, 2. Prajna S. Prakash 14.13, 3. Anurupa Kumari 14.27; 400m hurdles: 1. Arpitha M 57.43s, 2. Anu Raghavan 58.05, 3. Veerpal Kaur 1:01.72; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Sudha Singh 9:50.78s, 2. Chinta Yadav 10:09.41, 3. Chhavi Yadav 10:48.31; Shot put: 1. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon 16.45m, 2. Rakhi 14.74, 3. Uma P.S. 14.66; Heptathlon: 1. Purnima Hembram 5815 pts, 2. Liksy Joseph 5299, 3. M. Sowmiya 5173.