Sawan aces 10,000m race, qualifies for Asian meet

Army’s Sawan Barwal came true to his pre-race prediction as he not only won the gold medal in the men’s 10,000 metres event but also qualified for the May 27-31 Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea.

Barwal finished the race with a timing of 28:57.13, which was better than the qualification timing set by the Athletics Federation of India, on Day 1 of the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championship at Kochi’s Maharaja’s College Stadium. Barwal also bettered the previous meet record of 28:57.90 set by Surendra Singh in 2007.

“I am happy to have won gold with a meet record and also book a berth for the Asian Championships,” Barwal said.

The Army runner conceded he could have pushed harder in the race, although he took a commanding lead with five laps to go. “I could have done better in the race, but there was no one to challenge me,” he said.

Railways’ Abhishek Pal won the silver medal with a timing of 29:14.86. Pal has also made the qualification standard for the Gumi meet. Kiran Matre of the Army claimed the bronze medal with a timing of 29:47.62.

The women’s 10,000m gold was won by Maharashtra’s international runner Sanjivani Jadhav by clocking 33:44.43, but she missed the Asian qualification standard of 33:24.79.

Himachal Pradesh’s Seema took the silver medal (34:55.92), followed by Uttar Pradesh’s Beby who finished the race with a time of 34:59.67.

In the men’s javelin competition that was held in the afternoon, Sachin Yadav reigned supreme with a throw of 83.67 metres.

There was intense drama in the men’s 100m race where Railways’ Pranav Pramod stunned Odisha’s Animesh Kujur to win the gold medal. Pramod clocked 10.27 seconds, which was a shade better than Kujur’s timing of 10.32. Army’s Manikanta Hoblidhar finished third with a timing of 10.35. However, Punjab’s Gurindervir Singh, who was representing Reliance, finished last in the race.

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