Indian Open Jumps: Nayana James records third best long jump by an Indian woman

Published at :March 21, 2024 at 1:31 AM

Modified at :April 24, 2024 at 8:16 PM

(Courtesy : @nayanajames/Instagram)

Abdulla Aboobacker won gold in men’s triple jump while Nayana James took gold in women’s long jump.

The 3rd Indian Open Jumps Competition came to a conclusion on Wednesday at the Anju Bobby George Foundation, Bangalore and unfortunately, not a single athlete managed to reach the benchmark necessary for qualification for the Paris Olympics 2024.

Nayana James leaped a personal best jump of 6.67m and marked an advancement from her previous best of 6.55m which was set nearly seven years ago to secure her the gold medal in the women’s long jump event.

Nayana’s jump fell short by 16cm of the national record set by Anju Bobby George and 19cm behind the mark set in Paris. It is now the third biggest leap by an Indian woman in the country’s long jump history.

Shaili Singh, who was the star attraction in long jump, faced a daunting challenge ahead and managed a distance of only 6.40m to settle for the silver. Susmita, who is Shaili’s training partner, secured the bronze medal with a personal best jump of 6.28m. Ancy Sojan, the Asian Games silver medalist in long jump was absent from the competition.

Another personal best performance achieved in the competition was by Tamil Nadu’s 22-year-old Pavithra Venkatesh in the women’s pole vault by clearing a distance of 4.15m. This outcome was particularly gratifying for the 2023 Asian indoor silver medalist who missed the 2024 edition in Tehran last month due to logistical issues with transporting her poles.

In the men’s discipline, M. Gowtham made a remarkable jump clearing 5.10m which was 30cm higher than his previous best and secured the top position.

Jesse Sandesh from Karnataka clinched the men’s high jump gold medal by matching his season’s best of 2.20m achieved in Luxembourg last month. This put him a significant 10 centimeters ahead of Aadarsh Ram (TN) and Swadhin Kumar Majhi from Odisha who secured second and third place respectively.

The final event of the day was the men’s triple jump which concluded with Abdulla Aboobacker, the Commonwealth Games silver medalist clinching the gold, with a jump of 16.76m surpassing CWG gold medalist Eldhose Paul (16.45m) and Tamil Nadu’s Selva Prabhu (16.32m).

Indian Open Jumps Competition Results

Men

High Jump

Jesse Sandesh (Kar) – 2.20m
Aadarsh Ram (TN) – 2.10m
Swadhin Kumar Majhi (Odi) – 2.10m

Long Jump

Muhammed Anees Yahiya (Ker) – 7.94m
Aditya Kumar Singh (MP) – 7.78m
Vishnu Siva Sankar (Del) – 7.50m

Triple Jump

Abdulla Aboobacker (Ker) – 16.76m
Eldhose Paul (Ker) – 16.45m
Selva Prabhu (TN) – 16.32m

Pole Vault

M. Gowtham (TN) – 5.10m
G. Reegan (TN) – 5.00m
Shekhar Kumar Pandey (UP) – 4.90m

Women