National Open Athletics Championships 2022: India's Long jump athlete Shaili Singh wins maiden gold medal

Shaili Singh clinched the women's long jump title with 6.41m in her final attempt, making her debut on the final day of the National Open Athletics Championships 2022 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday.

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It was Shaili's best effort of the season that won her the gold medal. The 18-year-old from Uttar Pradesh's opening effort of 6.25m was better than L. Sruthilekshmi (silver, 6.22m) and Nayana James (bronze, 6.22m). Shaili clinched the long jump silver at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2021 as well.

"I'm happy that I could jump past the 6.40m mark after a long gap. When I came here, I wanted to improve my best by one centimetre. But I'm very happy that I took it to 6.41m. This is my first Open Nationals and it's a big motivation to compete with seniors." Shaili said.

In the men's 200m event of the National Open Athletics Championships 2022, Tamil Nadu's Ragul Kumar finished first with a timing of 20.87s. This is the third best performance by an Indian this year. This year, Amlan Borgohain clocked 20.52s and 20.55s respectively in the Federation Cup in April and the National Games earlier this month. Murli Kumar Gavit of Gujarat won the men's 10,000m race, his first national title in four years. He had won double titles in Bhubaneswar in 2018.

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Ram Baboo of Uttar Pradesh secured the first position in the men's walking events (35m). Meanwhile, Payal of Uttarakhand won the women's walking events. Ram Baboo took two hours, 29 minutes, and five seconds. While Payal clocked three hours, four minutes, and 48 seconds to beat the record holder Ramandeep Kaur.

Army shot put athlete Tajinderpal Singh Toor (1162 points) and Railways' 100m hurdles athlete Jyoti Yarraji (1174 points) were adjudged the best athletes in the men's and women's categories respectively. In addition, Railways won the team championship by 297 points while Sena (174 points) and hosts Karnataka (69.50 points) finished second and third respectively.