National Inter-State Athletics C’ships: Tejaswin, Swapna earn Asian Games qualification

Tejaswin Shankar overcame a bleeding nose and an unstable ankle in testing conditions over two days to achieve the Asian Games qualifying mark and win the decathlon gold medal in the National inter-state athletics championships at the Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday.

The lanky well-built Delhi lad relied on his good showing in his pet event (high jump), clearing 2.20m on day one, and pole vault, achieving 4m while being guided by National record holder Siva Subramani, on day two to gather 7576 points, including a fine second day effort that fetched him 3367 points.

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“This win belongs to all my co-competitors who pushed me and supported me throughout the event, including the last 1500m race,” said Tejaswin.

Swapna Barman, whose participation in the Asian championships was in doubt like Tejaswin, won the heptathlon event with 5918 points and earned Asian Games qualification.

In men’s triple jump, Praveen Chithravel leaped 17.07m to win the gold and lead a pack of three athletes who breached the qualifying mark. Karnataka’s Akhilesh badly injured his right leg during the event.

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Jyothi Yarraji equaled her own meet record in the morning and then dipped below it in the final to win the 100m hurdles with 12.92.

Pavithra Venkatesh did 4.10m in the women’s pole vault to earn the Hangzhou Games mark.