Tajinderpal Toor creates new meet record at National Throws Competition

Former Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor improved his meet record by 1 cm on way to the men's shot put and won gold in the second AFI National Throws Competition.

Looking to go past the 20m mark, Toor uncorked four puts beyond 19.51m but had to content himself with a best effort of 19.95m.

Toor, the 2018 Asian Games gold medallist, dominated the Shot Put circle, leaving Karanveer Singh to fight a battle to find his rhythm late in the day.

Karanveer fouled the first two attempts and got 17.38m with a gingerly effort to earn himself three more tries. With 19.35 and 19.54m efforts in his last two attempts, he snatched silver from Sahib Singh's 18.77m.

It was Toor's performance and Karanveer's final two efforts which expectedly lit up the arena. The two seemed to have benefitted from having completed a 1-2 in the Asian Indoor Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, while most of the other competitors are in the training phase ahead of a long season.

In the men's Discus Throw, Haryana's Manjeet pipped Praveen Kumar (Rajasthan) to second place in an inter-Services battle.

Manjeet, appearing in an Air Force vest, found the explosive energy at the end of the competition to send the Discus over 51.24m to earn the gold. Army's Praveen had hurled the Discus to 50.88m on his second try to hold the lead till Manjeet's final try.

Earlier, Rekha Singh (Uttarakhand) strove hard to push the experienced Manju Bala (Rajasthan), 2014 Asian Games bronze medal winner, to second place in the women's Hammer Throw.

On a day when she had just three valid throws of the five that she attempted, the 25-year-old Rekha managed the day's only throw beyond 54m to take the gold.

Rajasthan's 21-year-old Yuvraj Jakhar endured the stress of not registering a mark on the last four of his six tries while watching the others trying to dislodge him from the gold medal position.

He heaved a sigh of relief when the ball and chain hit the turf at 52.32m on the fourth attempt by S Dinesh (Tamil Nadu). Yuvraj Jakhar's two throws of 52.69m and 52.43m were both good for gold.

Results:

Men

Shot Put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Haryana) 19.95m (New Meet Record. Old: 19.94, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Patiala, 2022); 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 19.54; 3. Sahib Singh (Delhi) 18.77.

Discus Throw: 1. Manjeet (Haryana) 51.24m; 2. Praveen Kumar (Rajasthan) 50.88; 3. Deepak Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 49.72.

Hammer Throw: 1. Yuvraj Jakhar (Rajasthan) 52.69m; 2. S Dinesh (Tamil Nadu) 52.32; 3. Meraj Ali (Uttar Pradesh) 51.71.

Women

Discus Throw: 1. Kalavathi Basappa (Karnataka) 44.83m; 2. Nandhini Vellaichamy (Tamil Nadu) 43.50; 3. MN Sushma (Karnataka) 42.98.

Hammer Throw: 1. Rekha Singh (Uttarakhand) 54.44m; 2. Manju Bala (Rajasthan) 53.83; 3. Amreen Subramanyam (Karnataka) 46.71.