Paulraj has another rosy day, rewrites NR

Bengaluru, October 15

Tamil Nadu’s Rosy Meena Paulraj shattered the national record in the women’s pole vault for the second time in 15 days by clearing 4.21 metres to win the gold medal at the National Open Athletics Championships here today.

National Open Athletics Championships

Paulraj, who turns 25 in a fortnight, had cleared 4.20m to set the previous record at the recently-concluded 36th National Games. She had then gone past VS Surekha’s national mark of 4.15m, which was set in 2014.

Railways’ Ravina won the women’s 20km race walk with a new meet record.

With Amlan Borgohain staying away, Delhi’s 19-year-old Shivam Vaishnav ensured that the spotlight remained on the 100m sprint event. When he clocked 10.74 seconds in the first round, there was no indication of what was to follow. He blazed the track to win his semifinal in 10.47s to become the fastest qualifier for the final in the men’s section.

On the women’s side, West Bengal’s Himashree Roy and Odisha’s Srabani Nanda were the fastest qualifiers for the final, clocking 11.52s and 11.53s, respectively. Though Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothi Yarraji did not finish her first round, Assam’s Hima Das battled through two rounds to remain in the mix.