Federation Cup: Praveen Chithravel qualifies for World C'ships, Animesh sets 200m NR

Triple jumper Praveen Chithravel was excited to have executed his Wednesday afternoon plan at Maharaja’s College Stadium jumping arena that enabled him to equal his own national record of 17.37m.

Chithravel was joined by Odisha’s sprinter Animesh Kujur, who also erased the men’s 200m national record on the concluding day of the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship here on Thursday.

The men’s 200m final went on expected lines as Kujur was confident of improving the national record after his good run in the morning heats.

He clocked 20.40 seconds to win gold and better the previous record of 20.52 seconds set by Amlan Borgohain in 2022. “I felt good during the morning heat. It gave a big boost to my confidence and eventually resulted in a record-breaking performance in the medal round,” Kujur said after the final race.

Praveen books World Championships berth

The 23-year-old, Chithravel, representing JSW, equalled his national record of 17.37m in his third attempt. “I planned to record a jump of 17.20m plus today,” the elated triple jumper said.

His opening was not good as he had a mid-16m jump (16.66m) on his first attempt, but he slowly bettered that in the following jump to 16.87m. His third jump (17.37m) made his day, so he didn’t attempt his next three jumps.

Chithravel’s Wednesday result here at Kochi was also better than the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships automatic qualification mark of 17.22m.

Outstanding performances in women’s long jump and decathlon.

The jumping pit also saw Uttar Pradesh’s international jumper Shaili Singh erasing long-standing meet record (third attempt) on her way to winning gold. Shaili recorded a jump of 6.64m which was better than the previous record of 6.59m set by Anju Bobby George in 2002.

Meanwhile, Ancy Sojan (6.46m) & Moumita Mondal (6.45m) finished 2nd & 3rd respectively, and all three jumpers also breached the Asian Qualifying mark of 6.41m.

In men's decathlon, Tejaswin Shankar broke the 19-year-old meet record of 7502 points, held by Jora Singh, to clinch the gold medal, accumulating 7603 points from the 10 events.

With this, he also booked his berth for the Asian Championships by breaching the qualifying mark of 7547 points.

Earlier in the morning session, Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav ran a well-judged pace to win the gold medal in the women’s 5,000m, and her time of 15:43.42s was better than the Asian qualification time of 16:03.33.

The men’s 5,000m race was more competitive, where the top three runners crossed the finish line within the Asian qualification time of 13:48.33.

The battle for gold was between Abhishek Pal and Sawan Barwal. But it was Pal who surged ahead of Barwal to win gold with a personal best time of 13:40.59.

Other results

800m Men: Anu Kumar (Uttarakhand) 1:47.78, Krishan Kumar (Haryana) 1:47.94, Shakeel (Rajasthan) 1:48.16.

Shot put Men: Samardeep Singh Gill (Madhya Pradesh) 19.34m, Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 18.77m, Aniket (Uttarakhand) 17.89m.

200m women: Nithya Gandhe (Telangana) 23.68 seconds, Angel Silvia M (Tamil Nadu) 23.91 seconds, V Sudheeksha (Karnataka) 24.31 seconds.

800m women: Twinkle Chaudhary (Reliance) 2:00.71 (meet record), Pooja (Haryana) 2:02.89, Amandeep Kaur (Punjab) 2:03.69.

Javelin throw Women: Anu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 56.66m, Karishma S Sanil (Karnataka) 52.73m, Ramyashree Jain (Karnataka) 51.17m.

High jump women: Pooja (Haryana) 1.84m, Gobika K (Tamil Nadu) 1.82m, Abhinaya S Shetty (Karnataka) 1.80m.

Hammer throw Women: Harshita Sehrawat (Reliance) 61.65m, Tanya Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 60.32m, Mital Solanki (Gujarat) 50.17m.