National Inter-State Athletics: Dhanalakshmi, Animesh, Annu shine together

Tamil Nadu's Dhanalakshmi Sekar grabbed her third gold of the meet with her 200m title while men's counterpart Animesh Kujur of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh javelin thrower Annu Rani won their respective events to share the spotlight at the National Inter-State Championships here Saturday.

The 27-year-old Dhanalakshmi, who served a doping ban till early this year, ran 23.53 seconds to take the women's 200m gold on the fourth and penultimate day of the meet at the JLN Stadium here.

Shivani Saini (24.04 seconds) of Uttar Pradesh and Sakshi Chavan (24.05 seconds) of Gujarat were second and third respectively.

Dhanalakshmi has earlier won gold in the 100m dash and 4x100m relay.

Meanwhile, Kujur and Annu brightened their chances of making it to next month's World Championships in Tokyo with their wins.

Running in lane six, the 22-year-old Kujur rocketed off the blocks and smoothly negotiated the curve to cross the finish line in 20.63 seconds to better his own meet record of 20.65 seconds set last year in Panchkula, Haryana.

Though short of his national record time of 20.32 seconds which he had clocked earlier this month, the performance is likely to keep him among the 48 athletes who will take part in the September 13-21 World Championships.

He could not breach the World Championships direct entry time of 20.16 seconds, but Kujur is likely to make the cut in the world ranking quota as he was at the 42nd spot before Saturday's performance out of 48 athletes to compete in men's 200m.

At the throwing arena, Asian Games champion Annu continued her good form as she won gold with an effort of 61.05m.

After an opening throw of 61.05m, Annu had a series of 57.22m, 60.61m, 59.48m, no mark and 60.14m.

Her performance Saturday was the third successive 60m-plus throw recorded this month. Earlier, in the Continental Tour events in Poland and Bhubaneswar, Annu had hurled the spear to 62.59m and 62.01m distance respectively.

Though she could not breach the World Championships direct entry mark of 64m, Annu is likely to make it to the showpiece in world ranking quota. Before Saturday's performance, she was in 28th spot out of 36 athletes to compete in women's 200m in Tokyo.

In the women's long jump event, Moumita Mondal of West Bengal scored an upset win as she took gold with an effort of 6.27m, pushing Shaili Singh of Uttar Pradesh (6.18m) to second spot. Sherin A of Tamil Nadu won the bronze with a jump of 6.16m.

This event, which concludes Sunday, is the last domestic meet for the Indian athletes to achieve qualification mark/time for the World Championships. August 24 is the deadline to qualify for the Worlds in most of the events.

Results: Women  200m: Dhana Lakshmi (Tamil Nadu) 23.53 seconds, Shivani Saini (Uttar Pradesh) 24.04 seconds, Sakshi Chavan (Gujarat) 24.05 seconds.

800m: Pooja (Haryana) 2:02.27 seconds, Huidrom Devi (Manipur) 2:04.44 seconds, Thota S (Chhattisgarh) 2:04.56 seconds.

400m hurdles: Ramandeep Kaur (Punjab) 58.90 seconds, Olimba Steffi (Tamil Nadu) 59.21 seconds, Deekshit R (Karnataka) 1:00.09 seconds.

Discus throw: Seema (Haryana) 57.18m, Bhavana Yadav (Delhi) 51.61m, Priya (Haryana) 48.96m.

Javelin throw: Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 61.05m, Deepika (Haryana) 75.19m, Karishma Sanil (Karnataka) 51.30m.

Long jump: Moumita Mondal (West Bengal) 6.27m, Shaili Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 6.18m, Sherin A (Tamil Nadu) 6.16m.

Men:  200m: Animesh Kujur (Odisha) 20.63 seconds (meet record, improved his own record of 20.65 seconds set in 2024), Ragul Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 20.92 seconds, Amlan Borgohain (Assam) 21.19 seconds.

800m: Krishan Kumar (Haryana) 1:48.41 seconds, Tushar Bhekane (Karnataka) 1:48.82 seconds, Prakash Gadade (Maharashtra) 1:48.86 seconds.

400m hurdles: Ruchit Mori (Gujarat) 49.76 seconds, Subhas Das (West Bengal) 50.61 seconds, Hardeep (Punjab) 51.03 seconds.

High jump: Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Maharashtra) 2.24m, Aadarsh Ram (Tamil Nadu) 2.21m, Swadhin Kumar Majhi (Odisha) 2.18m.

Shot put: Samardeep Gill (Madhya Pradesh) 19.82m, Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 19.41m, Aniket (Uttarakhand) 18.09m.