Inter-State National Athletics Championships: Seema Punia qualifies for Tokyo Olympics - LIVE Updates, Scores, Blog, Medals
Follow our LIVE updates from Day 5 of the Inter-State National Athletics Championships - Relay finals, Men's Javelin final and others
Welcome to The Bridge's LIVE Blog for the Day 5 of the Inter-State National Athletics Championships in Patiala.
After a string of mediocre performances from the relay teams and Tokyo Olympics-bound Shivpal Singh, the veteran discus thrower Seema Punia has finally given something to cheer for the Indians sports fans.
The 37-year-old has earned a direct qualification in Discus throw to the Olympics with a throw of 63.72m, surpassing the qualification standard of 63.50m.
On the other hand, star sprinter Hima Das finished with a below-par performance in the Women's 200m final. As of now, the dreams of qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics looks over for The Dhing Express. But, we will have to wait at least until tomorrow to get a clearer picture of things.
While we saw the likes of Tajinderpal Toor and Annu Rani set meet records yesterday, the biggest news of today evening has certainly been the resurgence of the veteran discus thrower Seema Punia, who has now qualified for her fourth Olympics. Some heartbreaks as well with the Women's 4x100m team looking completely out of contention for qualifying to the Olympics, and a below-par performance from Hima Das while carrying an injury.
Thank you for joining in, as the curtains fall on the 60th National Athletics Championships in Patiala.
The star Indian sprinter Hima Das seemed to be nowhere her best as finished last in the Women's 200m, and failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. The hamstring injury which she acquired a couple of days back during the 100m heat seemed to have come back to bite her. There are high chances that we might not see her travel to Tokyo at all.
Uttar Pradesh's Parul Chaudhary won the Women's 3000m Steeplechase with timing of 10.01.58.
Lovepreet Singh of Punjab took home the Men's 200m gold with a timing of 21.04 seconds.
Asian Games gold medallist Seema Punia has made her way to the Tokyo Olympics. The 37-year-old threw the discus to a distance of 63.72m to achieve the direct qualification to the Olympics. She will join Kamalpreet Kaur, who had already qualified in March this year. The qualification standard was set at 63.50m
Veteran athlete Seema Punia has registered a New Meet Record in Discus Throw with a throw of 63.18m! The previous record was 62.49 by Neelam Singh
India's Tokyo Olympics-bound javelin thrower Shivpal Singh has lost to statemate Rohit Yadav in the event.
This was pure domination from Shankar Lal Swami of Haryana, who takes the gold medal with a timing of 8:46.36 in 3000m Steeplechase. The second placed Vikram Singh of Madhya Pradesh clocked 9:15.53.
Punjab's Harmilan Bains, who was in contention to qualify for the Olympics has failed to do so. The 23-year-old clocked 4:15.52, which is way lesser than the qualification standard set at 4.04.20. She was, in fact, way short of her personal best of 4:08.70 which she had set last week at the IGP4.
That should be the end of all the relay events for the day. Though none of the Indian teams in contention for the Olympics managed to pull off anything spectacular, both the Men's and Women's 4x400m can be hopeful of making it through. But, the chances of Women's 4x100m team seem all but over.