Durgesh Kumar Pal and R. Elavarasi clinched gold medals in the men and women's 400 metres hurdles respectively on the first day of the 53rd National Open Athletics Championships at the Birsa Munda Sports Complex, here today.
SSCB's Pal clocked 50.89 to finish first in the men's event, failing to break the 2009 meet record of 50.26 set by Joseph G Abraham of the RSCB.
Jithin Paul (51.14) of the RSPB and his fellow team mate Joseph G Abraham (51.31) finished second and third respectively.
Olympian P T Usha's meet record of 56.80 set in 1985 remained intact with Tamil Nadu's Elavarasi fetching gold in the 400 metres women's hurdles clocking a distant 1:00.80. Her personal best was 59.2.
"I took a long break after the 2012 National Games, when I won the gold in the same event. But I will strive to improve my timing," Elavarasi told PTI, on her poor timing in the event.
ONGC's Anju Rani (1:01:55) and A Papathi (1:01.88) of the police settled for silver and bronze medals respectively.
In the men's 5000 metre, G Lakshmanan (13:58.53) of the Services won the gold medal while Suresh Kumar (14:01.60) and Inderjit Patel (14:19.70), both of the ONGC, secured silver and bronze medals.
Railways athletes L Surya (16:24.58) grabbed gold and Preeja Sreedharan (16:27.70) silver in the Women's 5000m race while ONGC's Kavita Raut (16:33.50) secured the bronze.
In the long jump, M Prajusha (6.25 metre) and V Neena (6.20 metre) of the Railways finished with gold and silver respectively while Punjab's Bhumika Thakur (5.95 metre) settled for the bronze.
In women's Shot Put, Manpreet Kaur hurled the weight to a distance of 15.03 metre to give the Railways the second gold medal of the day.
Neha Singh (13.62 metre) of the AIPSCB and U. Vasumathi (13.12 metre) of the LIC secured silver and bronze medals respectively.
