Kamalpreet Kaur grabbed the spotlight by winning a gold medal in the women's discus throw event and also qualified for the Asian Championships in the process on the opening day of Federation Cup here on Friday.
Shivpal Singh also booked a berth in the April 19-24 Asian Championships in Doha in men's javelin throw by crossing the qualifying standard set by Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
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With veteran Seema Punia not taking part in the Senior National Championships, the 21-year-old Kamalpreet of Punjab emerged triumphant with a final throw of 60.25m which was better than the Asian Championships qualifying standard of 58.50m.
In fact, Kamalpreet crossed the qualifying standard in her second throw as she sent the iron disc to a distance of 58.97m at the National Institute of Sport.
"I thought I could have thrown more than 61m but I was still recovering from an injury in my lower back," Kaur said after her event.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Navjeet Dhillon, also from Punjab, took the second spot with a best throw of 56.36m. Bengal's Suravi Biswas clinched the bronze medal with a best throw of 47.98m.
Even though Shivpal, representing Uttar Pradesh, failed to grab a medal in the men's javelin throw but his 81.85m effort in the qualification round bettered the AFI's qualification standard of 80.75m to claim a spot in the Indian team for the Asian Championships.
Rajender Singh (Haryana) was second in the qualification round with an effort of 76.31m while Punjab's Davinder Singh Kang, who made a return after being cleared of doping charges, threw the spear to a distance of 71.53m to be part of the 12 athletes who made it to the final round.
The event lost some sheen as Neeraj Chopra, who is currently training in South Africa, was exempted by the AFI from taking part in the championships.
Another creditable performance came in the men's pole vault event with national record holder S Siva of Tamil Nadu setting a new meet record by clearing a height of 5.16m.
He bettered his own previous meet record of 5.15m that he had set last year. Siva went for a new national record of 5.31m but failed on all of his three attempts. He also missed the Asian Championships qualification standard of 5.40m that had been set by the AFI.
The silver medal in the event went to Dhirendra Kumar of Uttar Pradesh who cleared a height of 4.70m. Bineesh Jacob of Kerala cleared the same height but took away bronze because he had more fouled attempts.
There was also a tie for first place in the women's high jump with B S Supriya of Karnataka and Rubina Yadav of Haryana clearing an identical height of 1.78m. The Karnataka athlete was awarded the gold as she had made fewer fouled attempts to get to that height.
Abhinaya Shetty of Karnataka took the bronze with a best jump of 1.75m.
A surprise was in store in the women's 5000m with Parul Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh winning the gold ahead of Loganathan Suriya of Tamil Nadu.
Chaudhary clocked a time of 15.58.35s to get the better of Suriya, who clocked 16.03.15s. Maharashtra's Sanjivani Jadhav clinched the bronze with a timing of 16.04.58s.
In men's 5000m, Gavit Murali Kumar of Gujarat clinched the gold with a timing of 13 minute 54.98 seconds. Reigning Asian champion Govindan Lakshmanan did not start the race and an AFI source said that he was not well.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
