Hima Das blazes to glory

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 20

Star sprinter Hima Das won the 200 metres race in 23.79 seconds while long jumper Ancy Sojan shared the limelight with a best effort of 6.49 metres in the Indian Grand Prix-1 athletics event here today.

Assam’s Hima beat Aishwarya Kailash Mishra (24.81) of Maharashtra and VK Vismaya (24.82) of Kerala to take the women’s 200m gold.

Sojan, meanwhile, produced a series of leaps beyond 6m and managed to cross the 6.45m mark laid down as the Asian Games qualifying standard.

The meet though received lukewarm response with very few top athletes competing in it. Many events had just three competitors.

There were just two competitors each in women’s high jump and men’s triple jump, four in men’s 400m hurdles, and three each in women’s 400m hurdles, women’s shot put, women’s 800m and women’s 5000m.

In men’s 800m, Haryana’s Krishan Kumar stepped up the pace approaching the halfway mark and won gold in 1:47.26, which was his second-best time over the distance. The Army man beat the Asian Games qualifying standard of 1:49.05.

The men’s 5000m race saw three Uttar Pradesh runners come home inside the Asian Games qualifying mark, with Abhishek Pal winning gold ahead of Gulveer Singh and Mohammed Nur Hasan.

Odisha javelin thrower Kishore Kumar produced only two valid tries but his effort of 81.05m was his career best, winning won him the gold medal. DP Manu tried hard to dislodge him from the top spot and had two throws over 80m, but finished second.