Patiala: Asian champion Neeraj Chopra continued his hot streak of form with another gold at the Run Adam Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships 2018.
Chopra who narrowly missed out on a final berth at the World Athletics Championships last year in London, once again emphasised on why he is the best Javelin thrower in the country, breaking old records and creating new ones.
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In his final throw of the competition, Chopra threw the spear 85.94m, bettering the old record of 85.64m he set in 2016. He had already qualified for the upcoming Commonwealth Games after breaching AFI’s qualifying guidelines of 81.80 at the Indian Grand Prix last month.
“Although I had already qualified for the CWG, I wanted to make a mark at the Federation Cup. That is why I was trying so hard. I will look to improve on this at the Commonwealth Games,” said Chopra after creating a new Indian record.
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Hima makes most of opportunity
After a fine Asia Games test event, where she clinched gold in the 200m race, Hima Das looked India’s best bet at the Commonwealth Games. But it meant she had to walk uncovered trajectory and participate in the 400m race. Up and until now she had raced in the 100m and 200m and was good at it.
But she stunned all in what was her debut competition in the quarter mile. Das clocked 51.97m to finish inside the CWG qualifying guidelines of 52 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India.
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“I was expecting to do around 52 seconds. So when I saw that I was able to go inside 52 seconds I was very happy. I was not sure how I would run the 400m but I was able to run without any difficulty,” Das said after finishing more than a second ahead of second place GK Vijaykumari who clocked 53.03 seconds.
Tajinder qualifies
Shot putter Tajinder Pal Toor was the other athlete who qualified for the CWG. For someone who won a silver-medal at the Asian Indoor games in January, Toor needed just one throw to pass AFI’s qualifying mark. He clocked 20.24m but was not satisfied.
“My goal was to throw over 21 meters. I could not do it here but I will try to do it in the Commonwealth Games,” be said later.
It was however heart-breaking for 18 year-old M Sreeshankar, who leaped into the junior record books with a jump of 7.99m. but still fell short of the AFI qualifying standard mark of 8.00m set for his event.