Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh set a new meet mark in the 3,000m steeplechase, while leading middle distance runner Tintu Luka made a glorious return after an injury lay-off on the concluding day of the Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bangalore on Tuesday. Sudha, representing Uttar Pradesh, ran a solo race in the women's 3,000m steeplechase to win gold in a new meet timing of 10:01.24 seconds at the Sree Kanteerava stadium.
Murali Sreeshankar is the only third Indian to finish in the top-three of a Diamond League after Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and former discus thrower Vikas Gowda.
Khatua was the joint record holder of 18.06m with Manpreet Kaur before this event. But with her fifth round hurl of 18.41m at the Kalinga Stadium, she became the sole national record holder.
Deepa Malik became the first Indian woman para-athlete and the oldest to be conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award
Anju set a new meet mark of 6.53 metres at the 46th National Senior Inter-State Athletics championships.
India would be looking for at least half a dozen medals in the July 28 to August 8 Games.
They respectively won the men's and women's 100 metres in the Sr Nat Inter-State Athletics championships.
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, who had pulled out of two top events -- FBK Games in the Netherlands and Paavo Nurmi Games in Finland -- due to a muscle strain he sustained last month, has started training but is yet to recover fully.
The 21-year-old Aldrin had jumped 8.42m, the best in the world so far this season, during the National Open Jumps Competition at Bellary on March 2 and then had two 8m-plus efforts in Havana, Cuba in May.
They were adjudged best in the men's and women's categories respectively in the MetLife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship.
Murali Sreeshankar became the first Indian male long jumper to qualify for World Athletics Championships finals while 3000 metre steeplechaser Avinash Sable also expectedly made the grade on the opening day of competition, in Eugene, USA, on Saturday.
World Athletics on Tuesday suspended the qualification period for the Tokyo Games from April 6 to November 30, 2020, following consultation with its Athletes' Commission, continental association presidents and the Council. India's Deputy chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair the decision would disappoint many Indian athletes.
Sarvesh Kushare said Neeraj Chopra's advice has boosted his confidence as at one point in time this year, he was not even sure of making the Paris Games cut.
Neeraj is one of top-five track and field athletes in world: Sreeshankar
Announces tentative calendar; defers elections
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday.
The Athletics Federation of India has submitted a list of 51 athletes, including the 11 called for trials, for the August 18 to September 2 Asian Games.
India's high jumper Tejaswin Shankar on Thursday said he has not been able to perform to his full potential owing to chronic tendonitis and it's now a "certainty" that he will compete in decathlon at next year's Asian Games.
'I had calculated that I have to run below 4 minute 40 seconds in the 1500m if I have to qualify for the Asian Games. I achieved that not because I was capable of but because of my co-competitors. Each one of them said that they have to push this guy (Shankar) to finish on time. One guy was running with me all the time in the race only to push me ahead.'
Shaili Singh announced her arrival on the big stage by winning a silver in the Under-20 World Athletics Championships, missing out on a historic gold by a mere 1 cm with a 6.59m effort, in the long jump final in Nairobi on Sunday.
An overview of India's underwhelming performance in athletics
She threw a distance of 63.72m in the women's discus throw at the National Inter-State #Athletics Championship to punch her ticket to the Games.
The spotlight will be on Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das while Dutee Chand would look to prove a point when India's track and field athletes begin their campaign in the Asian Games in Jakarta on Saturday.
India's Avinash Sable finished a creditable fifth at the prestigious Diamond League Meet in Rabat, Morocco, shattering his own 3000m steeplechase national record for the eighth time.
He may have missed out on a gold medal by the thinnest of margins, but the ever-smiling Murali Shreeshankar, who won a historic silver medal in men's long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Thursday, says this is just the beginning; he is hungry for more success.
Four Indian quarter-milers running below 53 seconds augurs well for the country's hopes of winning six straight Asian Games gold in women's 4x400m relay since 2002.
Shaili Singh's progress as an athlete has a lot to do with her coach Robert Bobby George but it was her "strong and determined" mother, who helped her daughter take first big leap when she sent her to Bengaluru for training, much against the 'advice' of well-wishers.
The athlete who hails from a village near Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, finished on top in 800 the metres in Doha and has now set her eyes on doing well at the World Athletics Championships.
Talented Priya Habbathanahalli Mohan aims to become the fastest quarter-miler of the country once again with an aim to bag a medal in the upcoming Asian Games.
The Athletics Federation of India has threatened action against all those who do not perform well in the Olympics after deciding not to withdraw long jumper M Sreeshankar and 20km race walker KT Irfan from the Tokyo Games despite a dip in their form.
The period of suspension begins from July 20, 2017, the date of her provisional suspension, according to an order of the anti-doping disciplinary panel (ADDP) of the NADA dated March 29.
I can brag about decathlon as now I have the national record: Tejaswin Shankar at his jovial best
Khushbir Kaur clinched the silver medal in the 20km race walk before 400m runners Rajiv Arokia and M R Poovamma grabbed a bronze each in the men's and women's 400m respectively while Manju Bala secured a bronze in women's hammer throw to add to the growing medal tally from track and field events.
Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh failed to live up to the expectations as India settled for two silver and two bronze medals on a rather disappointing day on Day 3 of the 20th Asian Athletics Championships in Pune on Friday.
Indian shot putter Inderjeet Singh, who returned positive for banned substances last month, alleged that his dope samples might have been tampered with as the National Anti-Doping Agency gave him two different results on the same sample collected on June 29, a claim denied by the NADA. Inderjeet, one of the 36 Indian track and field athletes who qualified for the ongoing Rio Olympics, circulated documents at a press conference which showed that the National Dope Testing Laboratory had given two different results of the A sample taken on June 29 during the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Hyderabad.
Unheralded Bhawana Jat qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 20km race walk event after pulling off a shock win with a national record time at the National Championships in Ranchi on Saturday. The 23-year-old athlete, who hails from a poor farmer's family at Kabra village in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district, clocked 1 hour 29 minutes and 54 seconds, well inside the Olympic qualification time of 1:31:00, to win the gold.
M A Prajusha defended her title in triple jump on the concluding day as her state Kerala emerged overall winners in the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Hyderabad on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
The Asian Games hammer throw bronze won by India's Manju Bala has been upgraded to silver after one of the two Chinese competitors who finished ahead of her in the women's final, returned positive for dope test.
Haryana sprinter Dharambir Singh, who was barred from representing the country in the Rio Olympics at the last minute for failing a dope test, has been slapped an eight-year ban by the National Anti-Doping Agency.
