TN's Santhosh Kumar wins 400m hurdles in new meet record

Tamil Nadu's Santhosh Kumar stole the show on the third day of the 57th National Open Athletics Championship by winning the men's 400 metres hurdles event in a new meet record time here today.
Kumar's 50.16 seconds effort eclipsed the previous meet record of 50.26 seconds set by Joseph Abraham in 2009.
Services' athlete Ramachandran was second while Aftab Alam of Uttar Pradesh was third at the Nehru Stadium here.
The men's high jump too saw a new meet record being set by both Siddarth Yadav (Railways) and V Bharathi (Services), clearing 2.23 metres, putting in shade the old mark of 2.22m set by Tejaswin Shankar last year.

It was a close event with Siddarth Yadav edging out Bharathi on the countback.
Similarly in the pole vault, the top three achieved a height of 5m but J Preeth of Railways took the gold on countback.

K Ganapathi of Services walked his way to a gold in the 20km walk while his teammate Sandeep Kumar finished second followed by Manish Rawat of All India Police Sports Board.
Ganapathi, who participated in last month's World Athletics Championship in London, was a comfortable winner in the race held in the morning under cloudy skies. He, in fact, posted a better time than he did in the Worlds by finishing in 1:27:33.

Meanwhile, Railways pulled away in the medal race, claiming four gold today to take the tally to 12 (overall 26) with Services in second place with eight (overall 22).
In the women's 400m hurdles, ONGC's Jauna Murmu romped home in 58:25 seconds, way ahead of M Arpitha (Railways) and Punjab's Veerpal Kaur.
There were gold medals for Karnataka's D Aishwarya in triple jump and for Anu Rani of Railways in the javelin throw in which Uttar Pradesh's national record holder Annu Rani, who participated in the London World Championships, did not start.
Results: Men: 400m Hurdles: 1. Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 50:16 (NMR), 2. Ramachandran (Services) 51:02, 3. Aftab Alam (Uttar Pradesh) 51:33.

20km Walk: 1. K Ganapathi (Services) 1:27:33, 2. Sandeep Kumar (Services) 1:28:30, 3. Manish Rawat (All India Police Sports Board) 1:28:34.
High Jump: 1. Siddarth Yadav (Railways) 2.23m, 2. V Bharathi (Services) 2.23m, 3. KS Anil (Services) 2.21m.
3,000 metres Steeplechase: 1. Sable Avinash (Services) 8:39.81; 2. Shanker Lal Swami (Rajasthan) 8:56.68, 3. Jaiveer Singh (Services) 8:58.99.
Discus Throw: 1. Dharam Raj Yadav (Services) 55.08m, 2. Prabhjot Singh (All India Police Sports Board) 53.69m, 3. Gagandeep Singh (Punjab) 52.53m.
Pole Vault: 1. J Preeth (Railways) 5.00m, 2. Siva (Services) 5.00m, 3. Bimin K P (Railways) 5.00m.
Women: 400m Hurdles: 1. Jauna Murmu (ONGC) 58:25, 2. M Arpitha (Railways) 59:97, 3. Veerpal Kaur (Punjab) 1:00.60.

Javelin Throw: 1. Anu Rani (Railways) 57.90m, 2. Poonam Rani (Haryana) 55.88m, 3. Sharmila Kumari (Railways) 53.76m.
Triple Jump: 1. D Aishwarya (Karnataka) 13.03m, 2. Rintu Mathew (Railways) 12.86m, 3. Joyline Mural Lobo (LIC) 12.84m. 3000 metres Steeplechase: 1. Chinta Yadav (Railways) 9:49.23, 2. Chhavi Yadav (Railways) 10:16.34, 3. Khushbu Gupta (UP) 10:44.40.