BENGALURU: Javelin-thrower Manu DP and Railways women’s 4x100m relay squad set meet records to help Services Sports Control Board and Railways win the men’s and women’s titles respectively at the 62nd National Open Athletics Championships that concluded at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Sunday.
Railways, who bagged three gold medals on the final day, also won the overall championships with a tally of 220 points.
In the absence of Asian Games gold and silver medallists, Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena, Karnataka native Manu, who won the silver medal at the Asian Championships in Bangkok, faced no challenge as he defended his title by improving his own mark set last year.
Manu rewrote his record from 81.23 to 82.06m with his first throw and no one else in the field could even go past the 80m mark.
Rajasthan’s Yashvir Singh (77.72m) and Odisha’s Vikrant Malik (77.65), Khelo India University Games winner, finished second and third.
“I came here looking to meet the Paris Olympics qualification mark (85.50m) but I’m happy with the gold and the fact that I could improve my meet record,” Manu told TOI.
Manu has a personal best of 84.35m while his season’s best is 84.33m achieved in April.
Manu was happy with India’s 1-2 show at the Asiad. “If they had allowed three athletes, we could have swept the medals,” said Mannu, who was named the best athlete of the meet.
Maharashtra’s Yamuna Ladkat, who won the 800m gold, was named the best female athlete.
In the 4x100m relays, Tamil Nadu and Railways set new meet marks in the men’s and women’s section respectively. Tamil Nadu clocked 39.42 seconds to erase the previous mark set by Railways last year.
