Army's distance runner Sawan Barwal wins men's 10,000m gold, improves meet record

Kochi, April 21 (IANS) Army’s distance runner Sawan Barwal’s prediction of podium finish came true. On his way to the gold medal in the men’s 10,000m he improved meet record and also qualified for the May 27-31 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

Barwal clocked 28:57.13 in the men’s 10,000m on the opening day of the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship here at Kochi’s Maharaja’s College Stadium. His performance was better than the previous meet record of 28:57.90 set in 2007 by Surendra Singh in Kolkata.

The AFI (Athletics Federation of India) qualification time in the men’s 10,000m was 29:33.26. “I’m happy to have won a gold medal with a meet record and also booked a berth for the continental competition in May,” Barwal said in the post race interaction.

With focus on winning a berth for Asian Championships, the army runner surged ahead with five laps to go. “I could have done better in the race, but there was no one to challenge me,” he added.

Abhishek Pal representing Railway Sports won silver with a time of 29:14.86. Pal also dipped below the Asian Athletics qualification time of 29:33.26.

Kiran Matre of the Army claimed the bronze medal. He clocked 29:47.62.

The women’s 10,000m gold went to Maharashtra’s international runner Sanjivani Jadhav whose winning time was 33:44.43. Sanjivani missed the Asian qualification time of 33:24.79.

Seema of Himachal Pradesh took home silver with a time of 34:55.92. While Beby of Uttar Pradesh settled for bronze. Her time was 34:59.67.

In the afternoon session, the focus was on men’s javelin throw. Top seven throwers dipped below the Asian qualification mark of 75.36m. However, the day’s honour went to Uttar Pradesh talented thrower Sachin Yadav, whose gold medal winning throw was 83.86m achieved in fifth attempt.

His other attempts were 78.04, 80.22m, 75.97, 79.69m and 83.67m.

There was intense drama in the men’s 100m. Punjab’s Gurindervir Singh representing Reliance trailed home at the last spot. Pranav Pramod of Railway sports emerged as the fastest male runner of the meet. Pramod’s winning time was 10.27 seconds.

Telangana’s Nithya Gandhe was the fastest female runner of the meet. Her winning time was 11.50 seconds. Finalists were spotted in the men and women’s 400m event. Rupal of Uttar Pradesh was fastest in women’s 400m semis with a time of 52.65 seconds. Kerala's Manu TS was fastest in the men’s 400m with a time of 46.52 seconds.

--IANS

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