Murali Sreeshankar was in impressive form with a 8.13m effort.
| Photo Credit: BISWARANJAN ROUT
Murali Sreeshankar lifted his series of fine performances to achieve his season best of 8.13m to win the men’s long jump, while Annu Rani and Animesh Kujur rode on vociferous crowd support to claim women’s javelin and men’s 200m titles respectively at the inaugural World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze event at the Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday.
In his comeback season following a knee surgery, Sreeshankar, who jumped 8.05m in Pune last month and had camped here for about a week, excelled at his favourite venue. He leaped close to the 8m mark thrice before pushing himself to get his best of the season in his final attempt.
An unchallenged Annu continued her good run with renewed energy to throw the spear to 62.01m after recording her season best (62.59m) in Poland last week.
Annu, who began with 52.74m, achieved her winning mark in her fourth attempt. She went past 61m again to underline her fine form.
Kujur, who set the National record of 20.32 at the Asian championships in May, claimed the 200m crown with 20.77. After pulling out from the 100m heats in the morning, Kujur, focusing on 200m, regained his lead from Korean Ko Seunghwan in the last 30m in the evening.
Abdulla Aboobacker, with a season best of 17.19m, leaped to 16.53m in his third attempt to beat compatriot Karthik Unnikrishnan by 11cm.
Vishal T.K. clocked 45.72 to take the men’s 400m title. Second-placed Amoj Jacob, who timed 50.26 in the heats, achieved his season best of 45.86.
Home favourites Rohit Yadav and Sachin Yadav finished fourth and fifth with 80.35m and 79.80m respectively in javelin.
The Ramaraj sisters had disappointment in store. Vithya was disqualified for a false start in 400m while Nithya, leading comfortably in 100m hurdles, stumbled at the eighth hurdle and fell on the track.
The results (finals): Men: 100m: 1. Muhammad Azeem Bin Mohd. Fahmi (Mas) 10.35, 2. Chamod Yodhasinghe (Sri) 10.43, 3. Danish Iftikhar Muhammas Roslee (Mas) 10.50; 200m: 1. Animesh Kujur 20.77, 2. Ko Seunghwan (Kor) 20.95, 3. G.Ragul Kumar 21.17; 400m: 1. Vishal T.K. 45.72, 2. Amoj Jacob 45.86, 3. T.Santhosh Kumar 46.89; 800m: 1. Mohammed Afsal 1:46.60, 2. Prakash Gadade 1:47.14, 3. Krishan Kumar 1:48.00; 5000m: 1. Waberi Houssein (Dji) 14:05.36, 2. Abhishek Pal 14:10.60, 3. Sawan Barwal 14:13.41; 4x400m relay: 1. Sri Lanka 3:08.22, 2. India (Santhosh Kumar T, Vishal, Amoj Jacob, D. Choudhary) 3:08.37, 3. Iraq 3:08.74; Long jump: 1. Murali Sreeshankar 8.13m, 2. Shahnavaz Khan 8.04m, 3. Lokesh Sathyanathan 7.85m; Triple jump: 1. Abdulla Aboobacker 16.53m, 2. Karthik Unnikrishnan 16.42m, 3. Gailey. V 16.26m; Javelin: 1. Rumesh Tharanga (Sri) 86.50m, 2. Shivam Lohakare 80.73, 3. Sumedha Ranasinghe (Sri) 80.65m.
Women: 100m: 1. Abinaya Rajarajan 11.57, 2. S.S. Sneha 11.70, 3. Nithya Gandhe 11.70; 200m: 1. Angel Silvia 23.95, 2. Nithya Gandhe 24.11, 3. Unnathi Aiyappa 24.56; 400m: 1. G.G. Vijayakumari 53.40, 2. Devyaniba Zala 53.87, 3. Louise Evans (Gbr) 54.28; 800m: 1. Amandeep Kaur 2:04.31, 2. Huidrom Bhumeshwory 2:06.96, 3. Thota Sankeertana 2:07.17; 1500m: 1. Pooja 4:15.13, 2. Lili Das 4:17.66, 3. Amandeep Kaur 4:27.14; 100m hurdles: 1. Pragyan Prasanti Sahu 13.74, 2. Nandhini Kongan 13.80, 3. C. Anjali 14.00; Long jump: 1. Shaili Singh 6.28m, 2. Bhavani Yadav 6.13m, 3. Sandra Babu 6.10m; Javelin: 1. Annu Rani 62.01m, 2. Hatarabag Lekamalage (Sri) 56.27m, 3. Deepika 54.20m.
Published – August 11, 2025 12:03 am IST
