Paul wins 400m hurdles at national athletics

In a big upset, Jharkhand's Jithin Paul defeated defending Asian Games champion Joseph Abraham in the men's 400 metres hurdles with a blistering run of 50.48 seconds at the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships here Sunday.

National record holder Abraham had to be content with second place with 50.75 seconds.

In another sensational finish, World University silver medallist Indrajit Singh crushed national record-holder Om Prakash Singh Karhana in men's shot put.

The Haryana-based Indrajit produced his personal best throw of 19.89m to take top honours while Om Prakash finished second with a best throw of 18.89m.

Manipur produced its first ever national sprint champion when Armyman Jyoti Sankar Debnath upset the fancied Krishna Rane to win in 10.50 seconds. Rane finished runners-up with 10.62 seconds while Amiya Kumar Mallick, who had a short stint in Jamaica earlier this year, took the third clocking 10.65.

In the women's 100m final, Sharadha Narayana dominated once again with 11.72 seconds.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji managed to win the women's 400m hurdles, albeit with a not-so impressive timing of 57.96 seconds.

Sajeesh Joseph produced his personal best of 1:46.81 to win the men's 800m while in the absence Tintu Luka, Sushma Single grabbed the limelight in the women's 800m with a timing of 2:11.76.

The men's long jump title went to Ankit Sharma, who had a best jump of 7.55m while Premkumar finished 11th with 6.82m.

In men's javelin throw, Haryana's Ravinder Singh took the top spot with a throw of 79.32m while Punjab's Davinder Singh finished second with 78.57m. ONGC's Rohit Kumar took bronze with 76.61m.

Earlier, Rani Yadav of Uttar Pradesh won the women's 20 km race walk, clocking 1:42:24 while Rajasthan's Sapna was runners-up with 1:44:45.