New Delhi [India], September 11 : The inaugural Indian Athletics Final Series in New Delhi saw athletes supported by the Reliance Foundation sizzle as they registered 10 top-of-the-podium finishes, nine second-place finishes and five third-place finishes.
Animesh Kujur set his marker for the Asian Games by claiming both 100m and 200m titles in a remarkable double, reaching the finish line in 10.21s and 20.59s, respectively. Harita Bhadra delivered one of the all-time great performances by an Indian athlete en route to the women’s 100m title by clocking 11.22s, the second-fastest time ever by an Indian woman over the distance.
Harita, who trains at the Jio Institute in Navi Mumbai, has been among the most improved athletes this year and has regularly notched podium placings across both the 100m and 200m events at the national level, according to a press release from Reliance Foundation.
Reliance Foundation athletes utterly dominated the sprinting events, with Animesh and Gurindervir Singh (10.32s) registering a 1-2 finish in the men’s 100m and Harita and Abinaya Rajarajan (11.31s) doing the same in the women’s 100m event. Both Harita and Abinaya clocked their personal bests in a very fast race.
There was a clean sweep of the podium in the men’s 200m event as Animesh was closely followed by Jishnu Prasad (20.63s) and Abhay Singh (21.04s).
Among the Asian Games-bound athletes, Ancy Sojan (women’s long jump), Mohammed Afsal (men’s 800m), Karthik Unnikrishnan (men’s triple jump), Anu Raghavan (women’s 400m hurdles) and Aadarsh Ram (men’s high jump) dominated their events to clinch the top spot.
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Ancy continued her unbeaten run with a best leap of 6.76m in a very high-quality final that saw her being challenged regularly. Afsal and Anu, who both have silvers in previous editions of the Asian Games, cruised to wins in their respective events. Afsal clocked a season best of 1:46.40s, and Anu notched a time of 57.23s. Lili Das also put in an impressive display to win the 800m event against fancier competitors, registering a season-best time of 2:03.41s.
In the absence of Tejas Shirse, Krishik Manjunath won the men’s 110m hurdles event in a time of 13.65s in what has been a season of consistent gains for him.
Karthik and Aadarsh put their vast experience to good use as their best efforts were 16.43m and 2.18m, with some big names in their respective events missing from the event, living up to their status as favourites.
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Krishna Jayasankar (women’s shot put), Damneet Singh (men’s hammer throw), Baranica Elangovan (women’s pole vault) and Anushka Yadav (women’s hammer throw), who will all next be in action at the Asian Games, finished second in their respective events on a day that saw many of India’s finest gear up for the Asian Games in some style with solid showings.