Dutee smashes meet record in heats, SSCB remain on top

Controversial teen sprinter Dutee Chand set the track ablaze in the qualifiers itself with a new meet record even as Services Sports Control Board tightened its grip around the overall title by maintaining the top position in the 35th National Games here today.
On the 10th day of competitions, SSCB, the two-time defending champions, stayed comfortably placed at the top with 90 medals (55 gold, 16 silver and 19 bronze). Maharashtra took the second spot on account of lesser gold medals, totalling 100 overall (27 gold, 40 silver and 33 bronze). Haryana held on to the third spot with 56 medals (27 gold, 20 silver and 9 bronze).

At the athletics arena, Dutee, representing Odisha, broke the meet record in the heats itself, clocking 11.83sec in the women's 100m sprint to better the previous mark of 11.84sec set by H M Jyothi in the 2011 edition. The 19-year-old is fighting a legal battle to compete internationally again after she was banned for failing a controversial gender test.
Dutee, who made the 100m finals later in the evening, is competing in domestic events courtesy last year's interim order from the Court for Arbitration of Sport, which cleared her to participate in home tournaments until a final verdict in January determines whether she can run again internationally.

Another meet record was shattered in the men's long jump finals where Ankit Sharma claimed the gold medal after clearing 8.04m to better the 7.79m mark set by Kerala's Shyam Kumar back in 1994. Tamil Nadu's Premkumar Kumaravel was the silver-medallist with an effort of 7.68m, followed by Karanataka's Samsheer S E (7.46m).
In the women's 1500m run, Uttar Pradesh's Monika Chaudhary upstaged pre-race favourite Sini Markose of Kerala to notch up the gold medal, accelerating in the final few meters to surprise the field. Monika clocked 4:22.01sec, beating Sini, who finished in 4:23.03sec to nab the silver medal. Haryana's Sushma Devi won the bronze medal with a timing of 4:24.01sec.

The women's hammer throw gold went into Odisha's kitty with Sarita Singh's effort of 56.47m. The silver and bronze went to Punjab's K M Rachna (56.08) and Ritu Dhiman (55.60m) of Uttar Pradesh.