KOCHI, Apr 24:
Odisha sprinter Animesh Kujur ran a blazing 200m race as he won the gold medal with a national record time of 20.40 seconds and became the Asian season leader on the final day of the National Federation Senior Athletics Competition here on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Kujur, who had earlier won a silver in men’s 100m, ran a brilliant race to better Amlan Borgohain’s earlier national record of 20.52 seconds set in 2022. Borgohain, representing Reliance, finished second with 20.80 seconds.
With his 20.40 seconds effort, Kujur became the current Asian leader and joint 35th best in the world in the season so far.
The men’s 200m final race also turned out to be the fastest ever in the country with four competitors running sub 21 seconds. Rahul Kumar G of Tamil Nadu clocked 20.85 seconds to finish third while Manikanta Hoblidhar of Karnataka took the fourth spot with a time of 20.91 seconds.
Kujur, however, missed the World Championships qualifying time of 20.16 seconds which is a very tough ask for an Indian 200m runner.
He, however, bettered the Asian Championships qualifying time of 20.53 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
Kujur has been in top form coming into the event. He won a gold in the Uttarakhand National Games in February with a time of 20.58 seconds — his earlier personal best. He then finished on top in the Indian Open Athletics Meet in Chennai earlier this month, clocking 20.63 seconds.
He had won 200m gold in the last edition of this event, as well as in the 2024 National Inter-State Championships.
“I felt good during the morning heat race. It gave a big boost to my confidence and eventually resulted in a record breaking performance in the medal round,” Kujur said after the final race. (PTI)
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