At the same time Sandra is just happy as she achieved a bonus win, while her main focus lies on Thursday’s long jump event. “The coach had asked me to only take three attempts and not exert myself too much as my main event is long jump. I could not afford an injury before that. Therefore I am really happy with what I could achieve,” said Sandra who will hit the track again today. Keralas Sheena K V won the bronze in the event.
However Yashas P of Karnataka, who bagged gold in 400m hurdles was disappointed that he couldn’t cut the Asian qualification mark. “There was no competition at all, that’s why I missed the mark,” he said as he finished at 49.32s while the qualification time was 49.19s. Silver medalist Subhas Das representing JSW only finished at 50.11s.
In other finals, Damneet Singh representing Reliance Sports won gold in men’s hammer throw (63.30m). In men’s 3000m steeplechase Sunil Joliya Jinabhai of Gujarat won by finishing at 8:43:82s. In women’s 3000m steeplechase, Manju Ajjay Yadav of Madhya pradesh finished the first at 10:34:08s and Vidhi of Uttarpradesh bagged the gold in women’s shot put.
The event at Maharajas College Stadium in Kochi ends on Thursday with 13 finals. The highlights would be 200m men and women sprints, 800m men and women, triple jump men and long jump women where top athletes like Olympian Praveen Chitravel and long jumper Shaili Singh will be competing.
Day three results
Men: 3000m steeplechase (Asian Q 8:39.17): Sunil J Jinabhai (Guj) 8:43.82s, Vikram Singh (Army) 8:44.30s, Rohit Verma (Haryana) 8:44.80s; 400m hurdles (Asian Q 49.19s): Yashas P (Kar) 49.32s, Subhas Das (JSW) 50.11s, Ruchit Mori (Guj) 51.08s; Hammer (Asian Q 71.80m): Damneet Singh (Rel) 68.30m, Praveen Kumar (Raj) 63.84, Gurdev Singh (Pun) 60.78m. Women: 400m hurdles (Asian Q 57.80s); Vithya Ramraj (TN) 56.04s (MR. previous: 57.21s), Anu R (Ker) 58.26s, Ashwini R (TN) 1:02.41s; 3000m steeplechase (Asian Q 9:48.48s): Manju Ajay Yadav (MP) 10:34.08, Nikita (Raj) 10:51.96, Chanchal (Har) 11:10.40; Triple jump (Asian Q 13.68m): Niharika Vashisht (Pun) 13:49m, Sandra Babu (JSW) 13:48m, Sheena NV (Ker) 13:25m; Shot put (Asian Q 16.89m): Vidhi (UP) 16:10m, Srishti Vig (Del) 16.06m, Shiksha (Har) 16.05m.
