MEG Athlete times 10.23s on debut at nationals to eclipse Mallick's 2016 mark
BENGALURU: Madras Engineer Group's new talent HH Manikanta made a sensational debut at the 62nd National Open Athletics Championships, emerging fastest in the country with a national record of 10.23s in the men's 100m semifinals here on Wednesday.
"The race went according to our plans," Manikanta, who will turn 22 next month, told his Services teammates after erasing the mark of 10.26 seconds set by Amiya Kumar Mallick in New Delhi in 2016. Soon, he excused himself from taking more questions as he didn't want to get distracted ahead of Thursday's final.
Manikanta, who hails from Udupi, was recruited by MEG two years back and has made rapid progress over the last two years. "At the start of the season, Manikanta was clocking around 10.6-10.7s. But he showed his form at the InterServices meet in Hyderabad where he did a 10.31 to win the gold," said coach Aboobacker T, his coach at the Artillery Centre in Hyderabad for the last two years.
"I expect him to dip below the 10.2 second mark in the final as he is now warmed up after two races," he added.
Coach KC Saintison, who guided him at MEG, said: "In the heats he left the race at around 60-70m but still clocked around 10.6-7 range. In the semis, he left the field, which included Mallick, behind around the 60m mark and won with a gap of 4-5 metres".
DINESH, SEEMA BAG GOLD MEDAL IN 10,000M
After Manikanta stole the limelight and just before rain disrupted the proceedings, the men's and women's 10,000m races saw Maharashtra's Dinesh and Himachal Pradesh's Seema bag the gold. While Dinesh clocked 29:10.11, Seema won in 33:26.9.
Police Sports Control Board's Anmol Kaur took the gold in women's hammer throw with a best of 60.19m while Madhya Pradesh's Dev Meena won the men's pole vault gold clearing 5.05m in wet conditions.
RESULTS: (Men's 10,000m) 1. Dinesh (Mah, 29:10.11); 2. Mohan Saini (SSCB, 29:10.82); 3. Sandeep Singh (SSCB, 29:11.21). (Pole vault): 1. Dev Meena (MP, 5.05m); 2. Shekar Pandey (UP, 4.95); 3. Tanuj Kumar (Har, 4.85). (Women's 10,000m): 1. Seema (HP, 33:26.9); 2. Kavita Yadav (Rlys, 33:35.57); 3. Phoolan Pal (UP, 34:55.13) (Hammer throw): 1. Anmol Kaur (Pol, 60.19m); 2. Tanya Chaudhary (UP, 59.04); 3. Sarita R Singh (Rlys, 58.42)
