Sudha betters her own meet mark in National Open Athletics

National record holder Sudha Singh of Railways bettered her own meet mark while winning gold in women`s 3000m steeplechase on the third and penultimate day of the 53rd National Open Athletics Championships on Monday.

Ranchi: National record holder Sudha Singh of Railways bettered her own meet mark while winning gold in women`s 3000m steeplechase on the third and penultimate day of the 53rd National Open Athletics Championships here on Monday.

Sudha, Asian Championships silver medallist, clocked 10 minutes 9.04 secs to better her own old meet record of 10:09.56 set in 2010. Her Railways team-mate Lalita Babar was second 10:33.40 while Kiran Tiwari of Haryana was third in 10:52.75 at Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium. Tamil Nadu hurdler Gayathry Govindaraj reassured her position at the national scene as she clocked the second fastest time in her career (13.70 secs) to win the women`s 100m hurdles. Hemasree Jayabal (LIC) finished second in 14.19 secs. Top quartermiler M R Povamma of ONGC bagged the gold in women`s 400m in 53.96 while sprint legend P T Usha`s ward Tintu Luka got the silver in 53.98 in a tight race. M A Prajusha captured her second gold of the meet as she won the women`s triple jump event with a decent 12.91m leap. On the opening day of the Championships, she had won the long jump gold. It was her second `double` in the Open Nationals. Earlier she did this honour in 2009 at Bhopal. In the men`s discus throw, Haryana`s Arjun Kumar won the gold with an effort of 54.10m while Dharam Raj (50.99m) of Services and Karan Singh (50.19m) of Railways took the silver and bronze medals respectively. Jithin C Thomas (2.11m) of Services won the gold in men`s high jump event while teammate A Shaiju (2.08m) and Karnataka`s Chetan (2.05) won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Railway hurdler Arumugam Suresh won the men`s 110m hurdles in a noteworthy 14.19 secs well ahead of Kuppusamy Premkumar (14.34s). In women`s pole vault Khyati Vakharia (ONGC) continued her winning spree by defending her gold from arch-rival and national record holder V S Sureka of Railways. PTI