Mayookha, Anu Rani set new meet records of national athletics

Triple jumper Mayookha Johny and javelin thrower Anu Rani shone for their respective departments as both bagged new meet records on Day Three of the 55th National Open Athletic Championship here on Friday.

Mayookha bagged her gold medal in the women's triple jump with a lunge of 13.78 metres, bettering her own record of 13.71 which she had achieved in 2011. Prajusha M.A. of Railways and Shilpa Chako came second and third respectively with jumps of 12.79 metres.

Mayookha, however, missed the Olympic qualifying mark of 14.20 by some distance.

Rani was brilliant on the day and produced some very good throws. With her best effort, she registered 58.25 metres, but it was short of the Olympic qualification mark of 62.00 m. She though managed to break her own meet record of 54.35, which she set up in 2013.

"I could have done better, but I was suffering a bit because of the heat. I hope in the next meet I will be able to better this record," Rani said.

Suman Devi (57.15 m) and Poonam Rani (52.73m) clinched the silver and bronze respectively.

In men's discus throw, Dharamraj of Services pocketed the gold with a throw of 56.12 metres. Kripal Singh of ONGC registered the second best throw of the afternoon at 54.59 metres while Anshu Rai picked up the bronze with 54.21 metres.

Railways were a little lackluster on the day and ONGC capitalized on it, bagging three gold and three silvers.