Neena defends long jump gold at National Inter-State Athletics

Promising long jumper V Neena made a big leap of 6.45m to win the gold from pre-event favourite and teammate M A Prajusha on the opening day of 56th National Inter-State Senior Athletics championships here at G.M.C Balayogi Stadium on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old Kerala athlete, who won the previous edition of the senior nationals at Chennai last year, successfully retained her title in the women's long jump event. With today's jump she improved her previous best of 6.39m recorded while winning the gold medal at the National Games in Thiruvananthapuram in early 2015.

Prajusha, a silver medalist in long jump during the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010, had beaten Neena on two occasions earlier this year - during the Indian Grand Prix and Federation Cup - both held in Delhi in April. Hence it was a sweet revenge for Neena to upset her senior teammate at this prestigious competition.

"I am happy with this evening's performance although I could not accomplish my earlier plan of qualifying for the Rio Games" revealed Neena after the competition.

Maharashtra's Shraddha Ghule replicated her third place position from the Delhi Federation Cup with a modest 5.98m.