National Open Athletics: Rosy Meena Paulraj sets national record in pole vault

Bengaluru, Oct 15 (IANS) A fortnight after breaking the record at the National Games, Tamil Nadu's Rosy Meena Paulraj re-wrote the National Record in women's pole vault again when she cleared 4.21m to win gold on the opening day of the 61st National Open Athletics Championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Saturday.

With her confidence soaring after claiming the mark at IIT Gandhinagar on October 1, the Tamil Nadu vaulter gave herself an early birthday present on Saturday, setting a new National Record a fortnight before she turns 25.

Railways' Ravina found redemption after some disappointing performances after starting the year by being part of the Indian team which became the first to win a medal at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat. She won the women's 20km Race Walk with a new meet record time to boot.

Ravina clocked one hour 34 minutes 35.00 seconds to improve on the old meet record of 1'38:30.00 set by Haryana's Bhawna Jat at Ranchi in 2019. Karnataka's Vandana took silver in 1:37.19 while Munita Prajapati of Uttar Pradesh finished third in 1'37:49.00, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said in a release on Saturday.

With Amlan Borgohain staying away, Delhi's 19-year-old Shivam Vashnav ensured that some of the spotlight would remain on the 100m sprints. When he clocked 10.74 seconds in the first round, there was no indication of what was to follow. He blazed the track to win his semifinal in 10.47 seconds and be the fastest qualifier for the final.

Himashree Roy (West Bengal) and Srabani Nanda were the fastest qualifiers for the final, clocking 11.52 seconds and 11.53 seconds respectively. Though Jyothi Yarraji (Andhra Pradesh) did not finish her 100m first round, Hima Das (Assam) battled through two rounds (11.74 and 11.78) to remain in the mix.

Services' Mijo Chacko Kurian and Angrej Singh set up an engrossing men's 400m final along with Railways' Ayush Dabas and Rajesh Ramesh. The women's quarter-mile final will feature Subha Venkatesan (Tamil Nadu) and R Vithya Ramran as the fastest qualifiers. With six runners qualifying with sub-54 second times, the final can be a very competitive race.