National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2024: Annu Rani wins gold medal in javelin throw

Asian Games champion Annu Rani won the gold medal in the women’s javelin throw event at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2024 in Panchkula, Haryana on Friday.

Annu, who is also a Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, secured a best effort of 57.70m on her third attempt to take the top spot on the podium. The 31-year-old also holds the national record of 63.82m, set in Jamshedpur in 2022.

With the Inter-State meet being the final qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics for the Indian athletes before the window shuts on June 30, Annu Rani failed to achieve the women’s javelin throw Olympic qualification mark of 64m in the qualifying period.

However, Annu is 19th in the Road to Paris rankings. The top 32 eligible athletes in the javelin throw on the Road of Paris rankings will obtain Olympic quotas when the qualification window and the ranking period ends on June 30.

Athletes can either obtain a Paris 2024 quota for their country by breaching the entry standard or through rankings.

Kiran Pahal, who on Thursday met the Paris 2024 Olympics entry standard with a personal best of 50.92s in the women’s 400m semi-final, matched the performance to win gold in the final. She was followed by Deepanshi (52.01s) and Jyothika Sri Dandi (52.11s) on the podium.

The Athletics Federation of India held separate trials in the women’s 400m for five national campers Vithya Ramraj, Prachi, MR Poovama, Rupal and Aishwarya Mishra.

Asian Games bronze medallist Vithya Ramraj finished first in 53.16s and was followed by Prachi, who came second in 53.79s. MR Poovama clocked 54.30s to finish third and was followed by Rupal (54.48s) and Aishwarya Mishra (54.82s).

The Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams had obtained Olympic quotas from the World Athletics Relays 24 in Bahamas last month and the Indian teams for the same will be announced after the Inter-State Championships.

Asian Championships silver medallist Abha Khatua won the gold medal in women’s shot put with a throw of 17.63m. Abha, who improved the national record to 18.41m at the National Federation Cup athletics meet in Bhubaneswar, achieved the best effort of 17.63m on her second attempt.

Khatua had no match in the final with Kachnar Chaudhary (16.76m) and Srishti Vig (15.11m) being the next best to settle for silver and bronze, respectively.

Meanwhile, Gurindervir Singh won the men’s 100m title in 10.32s ahead of Animesh Kujur (10.46s) and former national record holder Amlan Borgohain (10.49s).

The men’s 400m final saw a photo-finish from India’s Asian Games gold medal-winning relay team members Muhammad Anas Yahiya and Muhammed Ajmal. Yahiya finished first in 45.926s, only 0.003s ahead of Ajmal. The bronze went to Mohit Kumar, who clocked 46.15s.

Anas is also the national record holder in men’s 400m. He clocked 45.21s in Czechia in 2019.

Meanwhile, upcoming runner Parvej Khan, who clocked the second-best time by an Indian in the men’s 1500m of 3:36.21 in the USA earlier this month, looked comfortable during his win in the 1500m race.

Khan finished the course in 3:42.95 and was followed by Yoonus Shah (3:43.88) and Mehedi Hassan (3:44.40)

The Panchkula meet serves as the final selection trials to pick the Indian athletics contingent for Paris 2024.

The National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships conclude on Sunday.

Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships 2024: Day 2 medal winners

• Men’s 20km racewalk: 1. Sanjay Kumar; 2. Amit; 3. Vikash Singh
• Women’s pole vault: 1. Rosy Paulraj; 2. Pavithra Venkatesh; 3. Mariya Jaison
• Women’s 100m: 1. Sneha SS; 2. Giridharani Ravikumar; 3. Nithya Gandhe
• Men’s 100m: 1. Gurindervir Singh; 2. Animesh Kujur; 3. Amlan Borgohain
• Women’s shot put: 1. Abha Khatua; 2. Kachnar Chaudhary; 3. Srishti Vig
• Women’s 400m: 1. Kiran Pahal; 2. Deepanshi; 3. Jyothika Sri Dandi
• Men’s 400m: 1. Muhammed Anas Yahiya; 2. Muhammed Ajmal V; 3. Mohit Kumar
• Women’s triple jump: 1. Sheena V; 2. Pavithra G; 3. Mallala Anusha
• Women’s 1500m: 1. Lili Das; 2. Chanda; 3. KM Deeksha
• Men’s 1500m: 1. Parvej Khan; 2. Yoonus Shah; 3. Mehedi Hassan
• Women’s javelin throw: 1. Annu Rani; 2. Ramyashree Jain; 3. Rashmi K
• Men’s 4x100m relay: 1. Odisha (D Jayaram, Aryan Ekka, Animesh Kujur, Amiya Mallick); 2. Punjab (Mahakdeep Singh, Lovepreet Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Harjot Singh); 3. Tamil Nadu (Arun C, Nithin, Ragul Kumar G, Saisiddharth R)
• Men’s 4x400m relay: 1. Haryana (Abhishek, Vikrant Panchal, Atul, Mohit Kumar); 2. Tamil Nadu (Santhosh S, S Arokia Rajiv, A Chinthala, Vishal TK); 3. Punjab (Jagmeet Singh, Harpreet Gill, Hardeep, Jashanpreet Singh)
• Women’s 400m trial: 1. R Vithya Ramraj; 2. Prachi; 3. Poovamma Raju
• Women’s 4x100m relay: 1. Karnataka (Kaveri Patil, Simi NS, Daneshwari T, Sneha SS); 2. Tamil Nadu (Nithya Ramraj, Pavithra R, B Bhagavathi, G Ravikumar); 3. Odisha (Srabani Nanda, Sukhi Baskey, Merymukta Soreng, Manisha Merel)
• Women's 4x400m relay: 1. Andhra Pradesh (Swathi Rongali, Mugada, M Lingala, Kunja Rajitha), 2. Punjab (Rashdeep Kaur, Khushdeep Kaur, Kuldeep Kaur, Ramandeep Kaur), 3. Delhi (Riya Chauhan, Ashwani Singh, Neeshu Kumari, Pooja)