National Open Athletics Championships: Animesh Kujur sets new meet record time of 20.74 seconds

Indian athlete Animesh Kujur broke Amlan Borgohain's meet record to win the gold medal in the men's 200m sprint event at the National Open Athletics Championships 2023 at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.

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20-year-old Animesh clocked a new personal best of 20.74 seconds to top the podium ahead of Services' Akshay Nain (20.97) and Railways' Shashikanth Angadi (21.14).

Animesh set a new meet record with his run at the National Open Athletics Championships, surpassing Amlaan Borgohain's previous mark of 20.75 in 2021. The national record for men's 200 meters in India is held by Amlan Borgohain, who clocked a personal best of 20.52.

Meanwhile, in the women's javelin throw event of National Open Athletics Championships, Annu Rani, who recently won a gold medal at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou, did not start despite being included in the start list. In the absence of Annu, Jyoti (53.59m) won the gold medal, while Karishma Sanil (52.86m) and Priyanka (52.57m) won silver and bronze medals respectively.

The big win of the National Open Athletics Championships came in the women's 800m, where Maharashtra's Yamuna Ladkat reached the finish line with a personal best of 2:01.95, beating Asian Championships 2023 silver medalist KM Chanda (2:02.66).

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Athletes from Railways and Services also continued to impress. Railways won gold and bronze in the women's 400m hurdles, courtesy of Sinchal and Nanhi. Railways' Sonu Kumari finished top in the women's heptathlon with a total points tally of 4933, while team-mate Tanu won silver with 4854 points.

On the other hand, the men's 400 meters hurdles was extremely competitive, with the top five finishing under 51 seconds.Nikhil Bhardwaj

secured the top podium with a personal best of 50.45. While it was a 1-2 finish for Services duo of Arun AB and Karthik U in the men's triple jump. Md Hasan eased to gold in the men's 3000m steeplechase with a time of 8:38.70, four seconds ahead of silver medallist Prince Raj Mishra.