National Open Athletics Championships: Abhishek Pal, Parul Chaudhary and Pavithra Venkatesh win big

The 60th National Open Athletics Championships got off to a glittering start at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Warangal, Telangana, on Wednesday (September 15).

The first day’s honors were shared by Abhishek Pal and Parul Chaudhary in the men’s and women’s 5,000m athletics events, while Tamil Nadu’s Pavithra Venkatesh produced a fantastic effort in the pole vault to emerge victorious.

The men’s 5,000m event was a contest between Abhishek Pal, Dharmender and Ajay Kumar (both Services). Pal used smart racing tactics to emerge as the winner for the first time in a 5,000m race in a national competition.

He started slow and was third for most of the race. However, he shifted gears and transitioned into powerful strides with just 300m left in the race. This meant both Dharmender and Ajay Kumar were stumped and had to finish behind the leader.

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In the women’s 5,000m athletics event, Parul Chaudhary also played the waiting game, settling behind Komal Chandrakant Jagdale for a large part in the race. She then strided ahead with just over 250m left in the 12-and-a-half-lap event. The 22-year-old Maharashtra runner, who could not find the speed to keep Parul Chaudhary at bay or challenge her in the home stretch, took silver clocking a personal best effort.

In the women’s pole vault event, Tamil Nadu’s Pavithra Venkatesh emerged victorious when she cleared the bar at 3.90m. Railways’ Mariya Jaison and Krishna Rachan won silver and bronze with jumps of 3.80m and 3.70m respectively.

Rosy Meena Paulraj of Tamil Nadu missed out on bronze on a countback.

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Athletics heats hog limelight

Later in the day, Services’ Muhammed Ajmal, stepping up from the shorter athletics sprint to the quartermile, clocked 47.08 seconds to finish as the fastest of the eight qualifiers for the final. Ayush Dabas (Haryana) won his heats with a time of 47.24. In the absence of familiar names, seven of the men’s 400m athletics qualifiers for the final were credited with sub-48 second efforts.

Andhra Pradesh’s Dandi Jyothika Sri was the fastest qualifier for the women’s 400m final, clocking 54.83 seconds. Haryana’s Kavita, competing on the national stage after a gap, was second fastest with 55.14 seconds on a day when Olympian V Revathi (Railways) did not start.

VK Elakkiadasan (Railways) and K Naresh Kumar (Andhra Pradesh) were the fastest qualifiers for the men’s 100m athletics finals, winning their heats in 10.52 seconds and 10.54 seconds respectively. Harjit Singh (Services) and Amlan Borgohain (Assam) were the other sprinters who dipped in under 10.60 seconds on their way to the final.

In the women’s 100m heats, Delhi’s Taranjeet Kaur broke the beam in 11.70 seconds, beating Archana Suseendran (Tamil Nadu) and Himashree Roy (Railways) to second and third place. In the other athletics heats, Nithya Gandhe (Telangana) got home in 11.90 seconds to beat the fancied C Kanimozhi (Railways) to second place.

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Results (finals)

Men 5,000m: 1. Abhishek Pal (Railways) 14:16.35; 2. Dharmender (Services) 14:17.20; 3. Ajay Kumar (Services) 14:20.98.

Women 5,000m: 1. Parul Chaudhary (Railways) 15:59.69; 2. Komal Chandrakant Jagdale (Maharashtra) 16:01.43; 3. Sanjivani Babar Jadhav (Maharashtra) 16:19.18.

Pole vault: 1. Pavithra Venkatesh (Tamil Nadu) 3.90m; 2. Mariya Jaison (Railways) 3.80; 3. Krishna Rachan (Railways) 3.60.

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