Mayookha puts ONGC on top, Railways ride on Annu's success

Asian Games bronze medallist Annu Rani helped defending champions Railways get the solitary gold medal while triple jumper Mayookha Johny's meet record pushed ONGC to the top of the medals tally on the penultimate day of the 55th National Open Athletics Championship here today.
Eyeing an Olympic qualification of 62 metres, Railways javelin thrower Rani struggled in the heat and humidity to throw 58.85 which was good enough to clinch her a fourth gold medal on the trot and better her two-year-old mark.
"I struggled in the heat and humidity and could not give my best even as I would do 60-plus in training... However, I'm confident to achieve the Olympic qualification," the 22-year-old from Meerut girl who bagged a bronze in Incheon 2014 said.

The national record holder Annu's was the lone gold for overnight leaders Railways who clinched another silver in the day to slip to second place behind ONGC who now have an overall tally of nine gold, nine silver and two bronze with the day's haul of three gold and three silver medals.
Railways are in second place with eight gold, six silver and eight bronze followed by Services at third place with six gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.
Mayookha made her Kolkata memorable again as she brought up her best again, three years after she set a record at the same place, to win a third gold in the Nationals.

She jumped 13.78 metres to erase her previous best of 13.71 at the 2011 National Open in Kolkata as the day saw only two new meet records.

Durgesh Kumar Pal clinched a hat-trick of gold medal when he overcame a strong challenge from his Services colleague Ramachandran near the last hurdle to reign supreme in the 400m hurdles.
It was a memorable day for Gujarat walker Babu Panocha who bagged his fifth title in nine years, reigning supreme in 20km walk earlier in the day.
Panocha clocked one hour, 33 minutes 44 seconds to beat Services Jitender Singh of Services.

Results (Finals)
Men's 20000m Race walking: 1 Babu Panocha (Gujarat; 1::33:44.00, 2 Jitender Singh (Services; 1::36:21:00), 3 Ankit Kumar (Services; 1::36:21.00).
High jump: 1 Jagdeep Singh (ONGC; 2.16), 2 Harshith S (ONGC; 2.16), 3 Srineesh C (Services; 2.13).
Discus: 1 Dharamraj (Services; 56.12), 2 Kripal Singh (ONGC; 54.59), 3 Anshu Rai (LIC; 54.21).
400m hurdles: 1 Durgesh Kumar (Services; 50.40), 2 Ramchandandran (Services; 50.56), 3 Jithin Paul (Railways; 50.71).
Women's: Javelin: 1 Annu Rani (Railways; 58.85 NMR), 2 Suman Devi (Uttar Pradesh; 57.15 BMR), 3 Poonam Rani (Haryana; 52.73m).
400m hurdles: 1 Anu Raghavan (ONGC; 58.73 NMR), 2 Jauna Murmu (ONGC; 59.41), 3 Santosh Kumar (Police; 59.54).

Triple Jump: 1 Mayookha Johny (ONGC; 13.78 NMR), 2 Prajusha M A (Railways; 12.79), 3 Shilpa Chako (Kerala, 12.79).