NEW DELHI: Sprinters Unnathi Aiyappa and Amiya Kumar Mallick shared their thoughts on relay performance and preparations after the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships, where 13 athletes breached the Asian Games qualification mark and six triple jumpers also secured qualification on the third day of competition.
Athlete Unnathi Aiyappa, who competes in the 100m and 200m sprint events and hails from Karnataka, reflected on her performance in the 4x100m women’s relay and highlighted the importance of baton exchanges.
“I’m a 100-meter and 200-meter sprinter. I’m from Karnataka, and we just finished the 4*100 girls relay…we were very confident with our team because it was a pretty good team. We just needed our baton exchanges to come good, we don’t train together. We just got 1 hour for the warm-up, and we did some two, three baton exchanges. I have qualified for the Asians in the 200 meters. I’m hoping to get a medal at the Asian Games.”
Meanwhile, experienced sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallick praised the performance of the Odisha 4x100m relay team and acknowledged areas for improvement despite their success.
“At the 2022 event, Odisha’s 4x100m relay team dominated the national competition. It is a fresh team comprising elite athletes; while there were some minor issues with the baton exchange, these can be rectified. We are delighted to have won the gold medal on home turf. We are especially grateful to the Odisha State Government’s Sports Department, the Athletics Federation of India, and the Athletics Association of Odisha. Regarding our target, we had hoped for a specific timing, but that is part of the game. I believe that if the team continues to perform consistently, the desired timing will eventually come. Currently, the national team hasn’t qualified for the Asian Games yet.”
Six male triple jumpers were among 13 aspiring athletes breaching Japan Asian Games qualification standards in their respective events on the third day of the 65th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship here at Bhubaneswar’s Kalinga Stadium on Friday.
The AFI (Athletics Federation of India) selection committee will decide the Asian Games-bound contingent after the conclusion of the Bhubaneswar competition. Two athletes will represent in each of the track and field events.
Hammer throwers set the ball rolling in the evening session. Punjab’s Damneet Singh hurled an iron ball to a distance of 69.72m to win gold and a better Asian Games qualification mark of 69.12m. Rajasthan’s Praveen Kumar’s silver-winning efforts of 69.58m were also good enough to qualify for the Asian Games.
After the hammer throw final, a dominant performance was witnessed at the discus throw arena. Three Haryana throwers—Seema, Sanya Yadav and Nidhi–finished in that order, better than the Asian Games qualification mark of 55.48m.
Men’s triple jump was the third field event that saw the top six leading jumpers achieve the Asian Games qualification mark of 16.28m. Praveen Chithravel won gold with an opening jump of 16.92m,
Away from the field events, national record holder Tejas Shrise was a comfortable winner in the men’s 110m hurdles. His winning time of 13.61 seconds was better than the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games qualification time of 13.63 seconds.
The women’s 400m hurdles heats saw Vithya Ramraj of Tamil Nadu posting a time of 56.69 seconds to stay on course for an Asian Games berth.
