Inter State Athletics Championships 2023: Tejaswin Shankar breaches Asian Games qualifying mark in Decathlon

Swapna Barman, Praveen Chithravel and several others also met the qualification mark.

Several athletes breached the Asian Games qualifying mark set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on the third day of Senior National Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 meet held in Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar. Tejaswin Shankar was among the top athletes to breach the Asiad mark (7500) in decathlon. He scored 7576 points across two days in intense heat (at times touching 44 degrees) and was followed by Yamandeep Sharma who secured his PB score.

Tejaswin Shankar has breached past the 7500 mark in the three meets he has taken part so far and is pretty close to getting to the national record mark. The 24-year-old secured PB in Pole Vault by jumping over 4m (previous best 3.60m) and also put in best efforts in throw events.

Asian Games 2018 gold medallist Swapna Barman and Agasara Nandhini secured the Asiad qualification mark in heptathlon. On the other hand, Agasara won the bronze in 100m hurdles clocking 13.55 sec which was held simultaneously with heptathlon.

Tamil Nadu athlete Praveen Chitravel jumped 17.07 to secure the top spot in men's high jump. Commonwealth Games 2022 silver and gold medallists Abdulla Aboobacker and Eldhose Paul secured the second and third spots respectively. National Record holder Praveen has breached the 17m mark in all the meets he has participated this year and continued the same at Inter States as well.

Pavitra in women's vault created a new meet record vaulting 4.10m and in the process qualified for the Asian Games (breaking her statemates Baranica Elangovan's record). After jumping over 4.10m, Pavitra set the bar at 4.22m to break the national record but couldn't breach it in three attempts. National Record holder Rosy Meena Paulraj and Baranica failed to secure a mark and finished the games with NM (no mark).

Senior Inter State Athletics Championships 2023 Day 3 Medallists

Women's 100m hurdles - Jyothi Yarraji (12.92), 2. Nithya Ramaraj (13.48), 3. Agasara Nandhini (13.55)

Men's 100m hurdles - Tejas Shirshe (13.87), 2. Sachin Binu (13.99), 3. Ronald Babu (14.24)

Men's Triple Jump - 1. Praveen Chitravel (17.07m), 2. Abdulla Aboobacker (16.88m), 3. Eldhose Paul (16.75m)

Decathlon - 1. Tejaswin Shankar (7576), 2. Yamandeep Sharma (7165). 3. S.Gokul (6937)

Heptathlon - 1. Swapna Barman (5918), 2. Agasara Nandhini (5703), 3. Sowmiya Murugan (5323)

Hammer Throw - 1. Taranveer Singh (68.07m), 2. Nitesh Poonia (67.10m), 3. Damneet Singh (65.86m)

Men's High Jump - 1. Sarvesh Kushare (2.24), 2. Jesse Sandhesh (2.24), 3. Bharathi (2.17)

Women's Pole Vault - 1. Pavitra (4.10), 2. Sindhushree (3.80), 3. Vanshika (3.40)