National Inter-State Athletics Championships: Krishan Kumar, Harmilan Bains ease to 800m gold

Patiala, June 27

Krishan Kumar of Haryana and Harmilan Bains of Punjab claimed the men’s and women’s 800m gold medals, respectively, with comfortable wins on the third day of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships.

Krishan grabbed lead at the bell and pulled away from the pack to add another gold to the Federation Cup title he won in March. The Haryana athlete won in 1 minute, 50.12 seconds. Uttarakhand’s Anu Kumar finished second, while Asian Games gold medallist Manjit Singh of Haryana took the bronze.

Bains enjoyed support from the supporters at the NIS as she left MR Poovamma in her wake after the first lap and opened up a sizeable lead despite being shadowed by the Delhi pair of Shalu Chaudhary and Chanda.

The 22-year-old Harmilan won in 2:02.57, while Sri Lanka’s Nimali Liyanaarachchi found the pace on the home stretch to push Shalu to bronze. Sonu Kumari won the women’s heptathlon gold with 5,004 points. Haryana athletes Kajal and Madhu took silver and bronze, respectively.

In men’s discus throw, Punjab’s athletes made a clean sweep as Kirpal Singh (58.90m) won gold, Harpreet Singh (57.73) won silver and Gagandeep Singh (56.33) took bronze. — PTI