Indian Open: Shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor won gold

vijayanagar Star shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor broke the meet record with a throw of 19.95 meters to win gold on the opening day of the second Indian Open throw and jump competition at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) here on Wednesday. With his stellar performance, Toor also qualified for a spot in the Asian Games by clearing the 19m mark, which is the qualifying standard for the Asian Games set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), in the men’s shot put.

New star on the circuit Karanvir Singh won the silver medal with a throw of 19.54m, who also broke the qualifying standard set by the AFI to make the cut for the Asian Games. Sahib Singh won the bronze medal with a throw of 18.77m.

After his performance, Tajinder said, “It is the first outdoor competition of the season, I am not satisfied with my performance. I wanted to cross the 20m mark, but fell a little short. This year I aim to break the national and Asian records.”

On the other hand, in women’s shot put, Manpreet Kaur won gold with a throw of 16.73m and also broke the Asian Games qualification mark of 16.30m. Abha Khatua won the silver medal with a throw of 15.06m and Kachnar Chowdhary of Rajasthan won the bronze with a throw of 14.34m.

Later in men’s javelin throw, Odisha’s Kishor Jena broke the meet record held by Rohit Yadav with a throw of 78.93m. Punjab’s Sarbjit Singh won the silver with a throw of 75.63m and Abhishek Dral won the bronze with his final throw of 73.51m.

In the absence of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, Kishor Jena won the men’s javelin throw with a distance of 78.93m. He also made the cut for the Asian Games, as the entry standard for men’s javelin throwers was set at 78.23 metres.

Karishma Sanil (Karnataka) won the gold in the women’s event with a throw of 47.60m, while Hemamalini Neelkanda (Tamil Nadu) and Priya Attri (Uttar Pradesh) won the silver and bronze with their respective efforts of 45.78m and 45.75m.

Manjeet (51.24m) and Kalavati Basappa Teli (44.83m) won the men’s and women’s discus throw events respectively. In hammer throw, Yuvraj Jakhar (52.69m) won the men’s event, while Rekha’s 54.44m won the gold medal in the women’s event.