Railways top athlete Joseph Abraham continued his good run in the domestic season and bagged the gold medal in the 400m hurdles event at the 49th Open National Athletics Championships in Bhopal.
Abraham broke the record timing of 50.43 created by Sahib Singh in year 1998, by clocking 50.26 seconds to set the new meet record.
Although Abraham broke the record, but he was very far from his personal best of 49.51 sec, which he set as a national record in 2007.
"I'm surprised with my time, but very happy to beat the meet record," said Abraham.
"I'm really in a good tune and I know that I have to give at least my personal best to won the gold medal at the 18th Asian Athletics Championships," he added.
His teammates Avin A Thomas and Satinder Singh crossed the hurdles in 50.70s and 51.52s to won silver and bronze medal respectively.
VS Surekha of Indian Railways also established a new meet record in the women's pole vault, bettering her own record with a leap of 4.00 metres.
Surekha also tried to break her own national record of 4.08m, but couldn't succeed to cross the bar in her all three attempts. In the pole vault, Surekha improved upon her own mark of 3.85 metres, set in 2006, to win the gold.
Her teammates Madhusini Devi, with a jump of 3.50 metres, finished second and Tapsi Nandi, who cleared 3.30 metres, settled for the third spot.
Renjith Singh erased his teammate Amarjeet Singh's meet record of 16.53m created in year 2007, by jumping 16.68m in his fifth attempt.
Amarjeet settled for the silver as he jumped 16.22m.
Indian Railways, which has fielded a strong contingent, continued to rule the roost with 16 gold to be on the top of the medal tally, while the Services with 4 gold was placed at second.
Results
Mens 400m hurdles
1. Joseph G. Abraham (Railways) 50.26,
2. Avin A Thomas (Railways) 50.70
3. Satinder singh (Railways) 51.52
Womens pole vault
1. VS Surekha (Railways) 4.00m
2. Madhusini Devi (Railways) 3.50m
3. Tapsi Nandi (Railways) 3.30m
Womens High Jump
1. Kavya Muthanna (Jharkhand) 1.75m
2. K C Chandanna (Karnataka) 1.70m
2. Sahana kumari (Railways) 1.70m
Womens 400m run
1. Manjit Kaur (Punjab) 53.62
2. Tintu Luka (Kerala) 54.15
3. K Soujanya (AP) 54.54
Mens Triple Jump
1. Ranjith M (Railways) 16.68m
2. Amarjeet Singh (Railways) 16.22m
3. Saurabh Singh (Police) 15.37m
Womens 3000m steeplechase
1. Kiran Tiwari (Railways) 10:39.04
2. Remeswari MV (Kerala) 11:39.84
3. Wahida Rehman (Police) 12:01.36
Mens 3000m steeplechase
1. Elam Singh (Services) 8:53.26
2. Om Prakash (Services) 8:53.56
3. Jai Bir Singh (Services) 9:06.11
