Prajusha wins gold in triple jump, Kerala bags overall title

Prajusha, who won a silver in long jump in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, won the triple jump event with an effort of 13.66m at the G M C Balayogi Staidum at Gachibowli here.

She barely missed the meet mark of 13.68m, which stands in her state-mate Mayookha Johny's name since 2010.

Shraddha Ghule of Maharashtra, the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games champion, took the silver with a 13.18m jump while Amitha Baby of Kerala won the bronze in 12.72m.

Other athletes who defended their titles include Kheta Ram (Rajasthan) in 10000m men's race, M M Anchu (Kerala) in 100m hurdles, Harwant Kaur (Punjab) in discus throw and Sushmita Singha Roy (Bengal) in heptathlon.

The championships, the last domestic qualification event for next month's Olympics, lacked the fireworks with only high jumper Sahana Kumari of Karnataka making the London Game grade with here gold-winning effort of 1.92m.

Harwant, the 2010 Commonwealth silver medallist, could manage only 55.92m in the discus throw and hence could not join her teammates Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil in the London Olympics-bound squad.

Rajasthan's Shakti Singh recorded a personal best of 18.25m to take the men's shot put gold while long distance runner Kheta Ram brought another gold for the state in the 10,000m. Clocking 29:49.71.

Jharkhand's A Suresh timed a career best 13.96 secs to win the men's 110m hurdles, beating Tamil Nadu's T Balamurugan (14.18) and K Premkumar (14.62). MORE