Athletics
IGP 5: Harjit Singh beats Amlan Borgohain in 100m, Abha Khatua breaches Asian Games qualifying mark
The AFI had said that there was a chance for some athletes to qualify for the 2023 Asian Games through the IGP 5, for only those athletes whose names had been previously sent.
Abha Khatua
Shot putter Abha Khatua breached the 18m mark at the IGP 5 in Chandigarh on Sunday to push her case for selection into the revised list of athletes sent by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the Asian Games, which is set to be released after the end of the event on Monday. Her 18.02m throw was just 4 cms short of the national record.
The AFI had said that there was a chance for some athletes to qualify for the 2023 Asian Games through the IGP 5, for only those athletes whose names had been previously sent to the Asian Games organisers in the provisional entry list. The AFI is hoping to add 15 more track and field athletes to the 65 already named for the Hangzhou Asian Games if they achieve the qualification criteria.
Apart from Abha Khatua, there were only the 1500m runners who breached the Asiad qualifying mark.
Jinson Johnson clocked his season best of 3:39.32 seconds in 1500m, but there were six others who met the Asiad qualifying mark too.
Kishore Jena won the gold medal in men's javelin throw with a series of 80m+ throws. Kishore's three throws were 82.54m, 80.74m and 81.56m.
Jinson and Kishore's showings close on the heels of the Asian Games puts them in good stead to be in the running for medals at the continental event.
One other highlight of the day was the men's 100m final, where Harjit Singh (10.55 seconds) beat Amlan Borgohain (10.57 secs) to win the gold medal. The Asian Games qualification standard in the men's 100m, however, was set at 10.19s.
Vithya Ramraj won the women's 400m final with a new personal best of 52.40s, well within the Asiad qualification standard. Jyothi Yarraji finished 6th. Amoj Jacob clocked 45.92 seconds to win the men's 400m event.
