Abdulla Aboobacker, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist who had been struggling to cross 16m in two meets early this season, won the men’s triple jump gold at the 57th Oda Mikio memorial athletics meet in Hiroshima on Saturday.
The 27-year-old Indian produced his best, 16.31m, in his last effort to finish ahead of Australian champion Hinson Aiden (16.18m) in the World Athletics Continental Tour-Bronze event in Japan.
Abdulla had won the Commonwealth Games silver with 17.02m last year, but this season he could only manage 15.93 and 15.77 while finishing third in the two domestic meets he competed in March.
Meanwhile, Ankita stunningly bettered her personal best by more than 20s (previous best 15:55.15s) while finishing fifth in the 5000m clocking 15:33.24.
That saw the 21-year-old comfortably achieve the Athletics Federation of India’s Asian Games qualification ‘guideline’ of 15:49.00. Kenya’s Teresiah Muthoni, the under-20 World champion, won the gold in 15:13.41.
In the men’s 3000m steeple chase, Balkishan was 10th with 8:47.71s.
