Kishore Kumar Jena claims maiden national-level title

Kishore Kumar Jena of Odisha won the National Open Javelin Throw Championships title with a best effort of 74.26m at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sunday. The 26-year-old won his maiden national level title with his attempt while Harish Kumar (Rajasthan) and seasoned Vipin Kasana (Delhi) took silver and bronze respectively.

Uma Choudhary (Rajasthan), second in the National U-23 Championships here last month, claimed her maiden national-level gold medal with a best throw of 46.41m in her final attempt in the women's competition. Her opening throw of 45.30m was good enough to secure the title as none of the other competitors crossed the 45m mark on a rain-swept afternoon.

While Manu Kumari (Uttar Pradesh) beat Haryana's Priyanka by a mere centimeter to the silver medal, Shilpa Rani (Haryana), who is in India's top 10 List this season, missed the chance to pick up her third successive medal in this championships after bronze in 2018 and silver in 2019. She was left disappointed in sixth place with a best effort of 44.11.

Haryana's Deepika improved on her own Girls U-16 national record with an opening throw of 49.31m. Though she had only three legal efforts, Deepika's throws of 43.69m and 46.93m were better than all the marks that her state-mates Manisha and Sapna managed.

The trio were the only bunch of athletes in the category who went past the 40m mark. Mangal Singh, the youngest in the Boys U-16 category, claimed top honours with a 71.37m throw on his second try. Rohan Yadav caught the eye with consistency and his best of 70.14m on the second attempt gave him the silver medal while Gaurav Patel took the bronze.