Thingalaya equals own national record, books Incheon ticket

Siddhanth Thingalaya booked himself an Asian Games ticket after equaling his own national record in the men's 110m hurdles as the Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships concluded, here today.
Thingalaya, representing ONGC, clocked 13.65secs to equal his own national record which he set in Brussels in 2012, also bettering his own meet mark of 13.69secs.
K Prem Kumar of Telangana was a distant second in 13.96 while Surendhar of Tamil Nadu was third in 14.24secs.
The Athletics Federation of India had set a qualifying standard of 13.77secs for the Asian Games.
For Thingalaya, it was an achievement of sorts to equal the national record considering the slow track on offer at the NIS here and the humid conditions.

"It was a surprise for me. I did not expect to equal my own national record. I am happy," Thingalaya said later.

Asian Games medal prospect Arpinder Singh of ONGC won the men's triple jump easily with an effort of 16.70m, beating his senior colleague Renjith Maheswary (16.43m) in a much anticipated contest.
Arpinder, who won a bronze in the recently-concluded Glasgow CWG, also holds the national record of 17.17m. He is also the Asian leader this season. The AFI qualifying standard for the event for Asian Games is 16.56m.
In the second top draw event of the day, 2010 CWG gold medallist and national record holder from Rajasthan, Krishna Poonia won the women's discus thrower with an effort 56.84m while World Junior Championships bronze winner Navjeet Kaur Dhillon of ONGC was second with 53.26m.

Poonia's effort was below the 57.55m qualifying mark set by the AFI and the selection committee will have to take a call on it. Glasgow Commonwealth Games silver medallist Seema Punia skipped the meet.
N Chandrodaya Singh of Uttar Pradesh then bettered his own meet record of 67.78m in men's hammer throw with an effort of 67.84m. Kamalpreet Singh of ONGC was second in 66.78m while Neeraj Kumar of Indian Navy was third with 66.71m.
Sushmita Singha Roy of West Bengal won the women's heptathlon event with an aggregate of 5402 points from the seven events while Swapna Barman (5400), also of West Bengal, and Liksy Joseph (5351) of Madhya Pradesh were second and third respectively.

14 meet records were broken in the Championships besides Thingalaya's national record equaling effort.
Thingalaya was adjudged the best male athlete while the honour of best woman athlete went to M R Poovamma who won the 400m race.