Hima bags gold; books Asiad berth on Day 2 of NISSAC
Guwahati, June 28 : Local favourite and brand ambassador of the 58th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships Hima Das on Wednesday lived to her billing to clinch the gold in women's 200m race in a meet record-equalling time of 23.10 seconds and book a ticket for the upcoming Asian Games.
Running at lane number 7, the 18-year-old led the final race from start to the end, leaving behind Odisha's Dutee Chand (23.41) by a big gap at the finish line to clock a personal best time. Another Odisha sprinter Srabani Nanda took the bronze in 23.87.
Dutee also booked an Asian Games berth after clocking 23.46 in one of the heats on Tuesday. The qualifying time for Asiad in this event is 23.50.
In men's 200m, Muhammed Anas of Kerala took the gold in 20.98 seconds but missed the qualifying mark of 20.87. V.K. Elakkiya Dasan of Tamil Nadu secured the silver in 21.31 while Parveen Kumar (21.43) got the bronze.
Anas, who began running 200m recently, had clocked 20.74 in Poland earlier this month.
Meanwhile, in women's 800m race, Komal Chodhary of Haryana took the gold clocking 2 minutes and 06.68 seconds, well outside the qualifying mark of 2:03.00. Shipra Sarkar of Bengal took the silver in 2:07.02 while Maharashtra's Archana Adhav clocked 2:07.22 to take bronze.
Eight athletes have so far breached the Asian Games qualifying mark set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). India has been allotted 102 (52 men and 50 women) spots by the organisers of the Asian Games to be hosted at Jakarta in August.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Neeraj Chopra wins Golden Spike meet
Ostrava (Czech Republic), Jun 24 (PTI): Indian javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra on Tuesday clinched the title at the Golden Spike meet in his maiden appearance here, his back-to-back win in a top-class competition.
Fresh from his Paris Diamond League win on June 20, Chopra emerged on top in a nine-man field here though with a modest effort of 85.29m in the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event.
He had skipped the last two editions of Golden Spike -- an event that his coach Jan Zelezny won nine times in a storied career -- due to fitness issues.
The 27-year-old Chopra has had an impressive season so far, having won his first Diamond League title in two years in Paris after also breaching the elusive 90m mark during his second place finish in Doha DL in May.
