Kerala's Abdulla Aboobacker, Karthik cross 17m mark in Triple Jump

In what was a stunning display of triple jumping prowess at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, two young Indian athletes - Abdulla Aboobacker and Karthik U crossed the 17m mark during the Indian Grand Prix 3 on Saturday.

Hailing from Kerala, Aboobacker and Karthik became only the third and fourth Indians to cross the 17m mark in triple jump. While the former took the gold with a leap of 17.19m, the latter walked away with the silver medal with an impressive jump of 17.10m.

Kerala swept the men's triple jump podium in Bhubaneswar with Eldose Paul taking the third spot with a best jump of 16.87m.

Prior to Aboobacker and Karthik, only two Indians - Renjit Maheswari and Arpinder Singh had managed to go past the 17m mark. While Maheswari holds the national record for a jump of 17.30m, Singh boasts of a best of 17.17m.

The display in Bhubaneswar is a massive improvement for Aboobacker, whose previous best was a jump of 16.84m set in September last year. Karthik, on the other hand, had a previous best of 16.81m.

Asian, Commonwealth Games qualification

Aboobacker with his jump of 17.19m has broken the qualification standards set for the now-postponed Hangzhou Asian Games, the upcoming 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

Karthik has also gone past the Asian and Commonwealth Games qualification mark, but just about missed the World Championships standard set at 17.14m.