Federation Cup Athletics 2023: Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Annu Rani claim gold medals on day 2

Published at :May 18, 2023 at 1:42 AM

Modified at :May 18, 2023 at 1:42 AM

Rajesh Ramesh and Muhammed Ajmal are the only two men quarter-milers to have gone sub 46 sec this season.

Asian Games 2018 champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Annu Rani, and Rajesh Ramesh were the top performers on the second day of the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships. Toor, 29, secured a gold medal in shot put with a best throw of 20.42m and in the process also breached the qualification mark for the Asian Athletics Championship and the Asian Games (19m).

Sahib Singh from Delhi (19.23m) and Karanveer Singh (19.05m) from Punjab secured the second and third spots in shot put, surpassing the qualification criteria along with National Record holder Tajinder Singh Toor.

Annu Rani representing Uttar Pradesh delivered a below-average performance by spearing the Javelin to a distance of 59.24m. However, this mark was sufficient for the qualification to the Asian Athletics Championships (54.73m) and the Asian Games (56.46m).

This was Annu Rani's first competition of the season and since February has been training abroad in Germany. She holds a Personal Best mark of 63.82m which is also the National Record achieved last year.

In the men's 400m, Rajesh Ramesh from Tamil Nadu won the gold medal by clocking 45.75 sec, while Muhammed Ajmal (45.85) from Kerala stood second. Rajesh became the first athlete to go below the 46-sec mark this season and this was also his first competition of the season.

A total of only ten athletes have gone sub 46 sec and two of them yesterday joined the coveted list. Both Rajesh Ramesh and Ajmal have breached the qualification mark for Asian Championship (46.17 sec).

Maharashtra's Tejas Shirse clocked 13.61 sec in the men's 110m hurdles (heats) and was the only male athlete to have dipped below 14 sec. In the the women's 100m hurdles, Jyothi Yarraji, broke her own meet record by clocking 13.18 sec. Both Jyothi and Tejas will be competing in the final scheduled today.