Kochi: Odisha sprinter Animesh Kujur ran a blazing 200m race as he won the gold medal with a national record time of 20.40 seconds and became the Asian season leader on the final day of the National Federation Senior Athletics Competition here on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Kujur, who had earlier won a silver in men’s 100m, ran a brilliant race to better Amlan Borgohain’s earlier national record of 20.52 seconds set in 2022. Borgohain, representing Reliance, finished second with 20.80 seconds.
With his 20.40 seconds effort, Kujur became the current Asian leader and joint 35th best in the world in the season so far.
The men’s 200m final race also turned out to be the fastest ever in the country with four competitors running sub 21 seconds. Rahul Kumar G of Tamil Nadu clocked 20.85 seconds to finish third while Manikanta Hoblidhar of Karnataka took the fourth spot with a time of 20.91 seconds.
Kujur, however, missed the World Championships qualifying time of 20.16 seconds which is a very tough ask for an Indian 200m runner.
He, however, bettered the Asian Championships qualifying time of 20.53 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Kujur has been in top form coming into the event. He won a gold in the Uttarakhand National Games in February with a time of 20.58 seconds -- his earlier personal best. He then finished on top in the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Chennai earlier this month, clocking 20.63 seconds.
He had won 200m gold in the last edition of this event, as well as in the 2024 National Inter-State Championships.
“I felt good during the morning heat race. It gave a big boost to my confidence and eventually resulted in a record breaking performance in the medal round,” Kujur said after the final race.
He had clocked 20.69 seconds in Heat No. 2 in the morning.
In the men’s triple jump, Praveen Chithravel equalled his own national record of 17.37m and qualified for the World Championships in Tokyo later this year.
The 23-year-old Chithravel, representing JSW, cleared the national record-equalling distance in his third attempt to take the gold on the final day of competitions. He had first set the national record in Havana, Cuba, in May 2023.
His effort breached the World Championships qualifying distance of 17.22m. The World Championships will be held in Tokyo from September.
“My plan was to record a jump of 17.20m plus today,” an elated Chithravel said.
Abdulla Aboobacker of Air Force finished second with a jump of 16.99m, while Mohammed Muhassin, also of JSW, was third with 16.28m.