National Games 2023: A.B Arun breaks National Games record in triple jump; Srabani Nanda stuns Jyothi Yarraji in 200m 

Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) triple jumper A.B. Arun broke the National Games record at the Bambolin Athletics Stadium on Thursday, November 2. The Thiruvananthapuram-born athlete marked 16.79m to clinch the gold medal in the men's triple jump final.

Arun bettered Praveen Chithravel's 16.68m in 2022 to create a new meet record. This was also his personal best after his 16.46m helped him win the National Open title last month in Bengaluru.

Speaking to Sportstar the event, Arun said:

“I was worried after an early foul but I’m happy I could get my best in the last jump"

Arun's Services mate Karthik Unnikrishnan won silver with a mark of 16.57m while Tamil Nadu's T. Selva Prabhu was just one centimetre short of Karthik's mark to settle for bronze.

In the men's 800m, Tamil Nadu's Pradeep Senthil Kumar won the gold with a timing of 1:48.10s. Kumar equalled his personal best recorded during the Inter-State Athletics earlier this year. He told Sportstar:

"I did not feel very good initially, somehow there was a sort of burning sensation in the air, I was sweating a lot."

Srabani Nanda stuns Jyothi Yarraji

In one of the biggest upsets of the National Games 2023, Odisha's Srabani Nanda got past Asian Games medallist Jyothi Yarraji to bag gold in the women's 200m with 23.69s. Yarraji had to settle with bronze (23.95s) with Punjab's Kamaljeet Kaur taking the silver home while clocking 23.84s.

Earlier in the National Games, Jyothi won gold medals in 100m hurdles and 4x100m relay events. She clocked 13.22s in the 100m hurdles to break her own National Games record of 13.30s set in Gujarat last year.

Delhi's KM Chanda defended her gold medal in the women's 800m with 2:01.74s while Maharashtra's Yamuna Ladkat (2:03.24s) and Haryana's Pooja (2:03.69s) took silver and bronze medals respectively.