National Open Athletics: Harmilan, Aishwarya claim golden doubles

WARANGAL: Harmilan Kaur Bains (Punjab) completed the women's middle-distance double while Railway's B. Aishwarya achieved the same feat in women's horizontal jumps at the 60th National Open Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

Harmilan added the 800m crown to the 1500m title she won a couple of days earlier here while Aishwarya won the Triple Jump title less than 24 hours after claiming the Long Jump title.

To her credit, Aishwarya won both events with the best efforts of the year by an Indian woman jumper. The Railways athlete, who won the Long Jump with a leap of 6.52m, edged out Renu Grewal (Haryana) by 4cm to double her joy.

Harmilan Kaur Bains, 23, drew on her stamina and speed to show a clean pair of heels to Delhi runner KM Chanda for the fourth successive time this year. The Punjab athlete had won the 800-1500 double in the National Inter-State Championships in Patiala in June and though Chanda employed different tactics here, the Punjab runner was ready and emerged on top.

In a keen battle at the Triple Jump pit, it was Renu Grewal who led the competition at the halfway stage, with an effort with 13.42m on her third attempt to improve on her ow' season's best effort of 13.39m. Aishwarya, whose best in the first three jumps was a 13.31m, responded with two jumps past that mark, logging 13.49m and 13.55m for a new personal best. Hard as the Haryana jumper tried on her last attempt, she could only get to 13.51m.

There was joy for Services when its athletes swept all podium places in the men's 800m and the gruelling 50km Race Walk to complete a hat-trick after it send out all three medallists in the men's 3000m Steeplechase on Friday. Mohammed Afsal showed lasting power to edge ahead of Ankesh Chaudhary and Krishan Kumar in the 800m final.

There was more good news for Services camp when Pole Vaulter S Siva improved on his own Meet Record, raising it to 5.12m from the 5.10m that he had cleared in Ranchi in October 2019. IANS

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