Federation Cup: Punjab’s Kirpal Singh Batth breaks record

Kozhikode, April 5

Punjab’s Kirpal Singh Batth broke the 22-year-old men’s discus throw meet record with an effort of 61.83 metres at the 25th AFI National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships here today.

The 29-year-old Batth, whose previous best of 59.74m was recorded nearly six years ago, produced a good string of throws at the CH Muhammed Koya Stadium. Four of his attempts saw the discus soar past the 60m mark, two of them breaching 61m as well. His first and last throws were over 59m, giving him a series to remember.

His best effort — 61.83m — fell short of making him only the third Indian male athlete to hurl the discus past 62m. Anil Kumar held the old record (59.55m).

Meanwhile, Delhi’s Chanda came up with a start-to-finish effort to win the women’s 800m in 2 minutes 2.11 seconds, while Lili Das of West Bengal produced a burst of pace in the last 100m to rise from the fifth place to take the silver. Das’s time is better than the Asian Games qualifying mark laid down by the Athletics Federation of India.

Krishan Kumar of Haryana won the men’s race but the Asian Games qualifying standard was out of his reach.

In the pole vault, four athletes cleared 4.90m, with S Siva and Gokul Nath both being jointly awarded the gold, while A Gnana Sone bagged the bronze. —