Young long jumper Ankit Sharma upstaged national record holder Prem Kumar with a new meet-equalling effort to grab the spotlight on the second day of the National Open Athletics Championships here today.
Ankit, representing LIC, leapt to 7.87m in his penultimate jump to equal the 16-year-old meet record set by Sanjay Kumar Rai of Railways.
National record holder Kumaravel Prem Kumar's miserable season continued as he was pushed to third place with a best effort of 7.53m. Railwayman Prem Kumar's national record stands at 8.09m.
M Arshad of Services took the silver with a jump of 7.58m.
22-year-old Ankit had finished fifth in the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2009 and won a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships in 2010. He has not won a medal at a senior international event.
Meanwhile, Asian Games medallists Tintu Luka and M R Poovamma ran away with easy wins in their respective events.
Luka, representing Railways, ran 2:03.88 to win gold in women's 800m race while Poovamma, turning up for ONGC, came first in 400m in 53.59 seconds. Luka had won a silver and Poovamma a bronze in their respective individual events in Incheon Asian Games while both of them were members of the gold-winning 4x400m relay quartet.
Both the athletes ran well below their personal best but that was expected as the National Open was the last event of the year after a gruelling season which had two major international events in Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Luka has a personal best of 1:59.17, which is also a national record, while Poovamma has a personal best of 51.73secs which she recorded at the National Inter-State in Lucknow in June.
"I wanted to win a gold for my department (ONGC) and I am happy to have done that. The (below-par) timing was expected after a long and gruelling season. I have not thought of the timing and this (timing) has no significance," Povamma said after her race.
