National record holder javelin thrower Annu Rani performed well below her best but still managed to win a gold medal on the penultimate day of the 55th National Inter-State Athletics Championship here today.
Incheon Asian Games bronze medallist Annu, representing Uttar Pradesh, clinched the gold with a throw of 54.67m, well below her national mark of 59.53m. There was no challenger to Annu as Haryana's Pusha Jakhar (49.69.M) and Karnataka's Shaheja Hani (48.72m) finished a distant second and third respectively.
Sreenith Mohan of Kerala, a favourite to win the men's high jump title, paid the price for passing first two jumps to finish fourth. Second ranked Mohan was complacent at the start and his decision to pass the first two attempts (1.90m and 1.95 m) did not provide him the require warm-up and then fouled all three attempts at 2.09m. He cleared 2.05m and finished fourth.
Karnataka jumper Harshith Sashidhar, who also passed the first two jumps, cleared the next five series with confidence in first try itself to scale 2.16m to win the gold. Jagdeep Singh of Punjab also cleared 2.16m but could achieve it only in his second try to settle for the silver. Haryana's Ajay Kumar (2.09m) took the bronze medal.
In women's triple jump, Malliakkal A Prajusha of Kerala won the gold medal but her effort was below her personal best of 13.39m. Prajusha cleared 13.33m for the title, while Amita Baby (12.92m) of Chhattisgarh and Bhairavi Roy (12.79m) of Bengal finished second and third respectively.
Punjab's Kiranbir Kaur took the gold in women's pole vault event by scaling 3.50m ahead of K C Dija (3.40m) of Maharashtra and Kerala's Krishna Rachan, also at 3.40m.
In women's 4x100m relay, the Odisha quartet of Hembram Purnima, Muru Jauna, Srabani Nanda and Dutee Chand clinched the gold by clocking 46.20 seconds ahead of Kerala and Maharashtra.
In men's 4x100m relay final, Tamil Nadu clinched the gold medal, followed by Kerala and Haryana.
Maharashtra's Manisha Salunkhe bettered her personal best to clinch gold in 3000m steeple chase final with a time of 10.55.34. Pre-race favourite, Nandini Gupta of Uttar Pradesh had to settle for silver (11.07.09s) and Monika Fulchand Raut (11.09.24) of Maharashtra took the bronze medal.
