National Games: Dutee Chand Claims Gold, Records Tumble in Athletics

Controversial teen sprinter Dutee Chand cornered glory by clinching the women's 100m gold with a new meet record as athletes continued to raise the bar in the blue-riband track and field events of the 35th National Games in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

In overall standings, Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) remained the undisputed numero uno on the 11th day of competitions with 107 medals (66 gold, 19 silver and 22 bronze). Haryana rose to the second spot with 71 medals (30 gold, 25 silver and 16 bronze) while Maharashtra slipped to third on account of lesser gold medals with a total tally 103 27 gold, 40 silver and 36 bronze).

The 100m sprints were lined up early in the evening finals and as was expected, Odisha's Dutee displayed blazing form to break the meet record for a third time in the Games and comfortably notch up the women's gold with an effort of 11.76sec.

"The weather here has really helped my performance, it is neither very cold nor very hot, which has helped my body to perform to the optimum. Although, I could not produce my personal best of 11.73sec but I am glad that I have managed to do so well after the good showing in the National Championships," said the 19-year-old, who is fighting a legal battle to get an international ban on her lifted for failing a controversial gender test.

Kerala's Santhini Vallikkad stopped the clock at 11.84sec to win the silver, while Maharashtra's Rashmi Sheregar was a close third with a timing of 11.87sec. Among the men, Haryana's Dharambir stunned one and all by breaching the 100m meet record of 10.52sec to snatch the gold with a timing of 10.46sec.

"I was here to compete in the 200m race but when I felt that my body has acclimatised pretty well to the weather, I decided to try my luck in the 100m as well. I was not even thinking of a medal, let alone a gold," a grinning Dharambir, who idolises Usain Bolt, said after his stunning triumph. The silver was clinched Odisha's Amiya Mallick (10.64sec) and the bronze was grabbed by Maharashtra's Krishnakumar Rane (10.65sec).

The men's 400m event also had a new meet record when SSCB's Arokia Rajeev finished the race in 46.40sec to beat the previous mark of 46.97sec set by Paramjit Singh back in 1997.

He finished way ahead of the field in which, Haryana's Lalit Mathur (47.04sec) and West Bengal's Chandan Bauri (47.41) ended up being the respective silver and bronze medal winners.

There was a slight glitch at the start of the women's 400m race when the starter gun malfunctioned, prompting the organisers to assemble the athletes all over again. But once they were off the mark, Kerala's Anilda Thomas left everyone behind to win the gold medal in a meet record-equalling 52.71sec, which was set by K M Beenamol in 2001. Another Keralite, Anu Raghavan, settled for a silver after finishing the race in 54.38sec, followed by Haryana's Nirmala (55.19sec).

A new meet record was also set in women's pole vault when Tamil Nadu's Surekha Babu touched the 4m mark for the first time in the history of the Games. Surekha cleared excatly 4m to clinch the gold. Kerala pocketed the silver and bronze through Dija Cherian (3.60m) and Sinju Prakash (3.40m).

The 1500m men's race was won by Uttarakhand's Ravinder Tautela (3:51.96sec) ahead of Kerala's Sajeesh Joseph (3:52.08sec). Haryana's Sandeep got the bronze with a timing of 3:52.25sec.

In women's long jump event, Kerala's Neena Varakil took home the gold medal by clearing 6.39m, followed by statemate Prajusha Antony (6.25m) and Punjab's Bhumika Thakur (6.23m). SSCB's Dharamraj Yadav was crowned the new men's discus throw champion after he hurled the discus to 57.44m.

Haryana's Arjun (56.85m) and Punjab's Baljinder Singh (52.40m) had to be content with silver and bronze. The 20km racewalk took place in the early hours of the day and Punjab's Baljinder Singh won the men's gold by clocking 1:26:24.20sec, while a new meet record was made in the women's event when Rajasthan's Sapna clocked 1:40:35.70sec to breach the previous mark of 1:41.08sec created by Assam's L Deepmala Devi in 2007.

The silver and bronze in the men's race were won by SSCB's Chandan Singh (1:26:29.20sec) and Uttarakhand's Gurmeet Singh (1:27:44:40sec). The second and third position among the women went to Uttar Pradesh duo of Rani Yadav (1:43:48.80sec) and Priyanka (1:46:09.00sec).

The biggest name in the start list, Asian Games silver-medallist Khushbir Kaur of Punjab did not participate for unspecified reasons.

The hockey competition came to an end in Kollam today with SSCB notching up the men's gold and Punjab claiming the women's top honours.

SSCB hammered Odisha 7-2 to nail the gold. Punjab's women, meanwhile, got the better of Haryana 3-1. The men's bronze was picked up by Haryana after a 7-6 triumph over a spirited Jharkhand.

However, Jharkhand pulled off the women's bronze with a2-0 win over Odisha. The cycling events concluded today with Punjab's Amrit Singh setting a new Games record in the 1km Time Trial Elite men's race by clocking 1:09:111sec to clinch the gold medal.

In fact, Punjab swept the podium with Amarjit Singh (1:10.136sec) and Gurbaj Singh (1:11.679sec) settling for the second and third position. The women's 500m Time Trial gold expectedly went to Asian medallist Deborah of Andaman and Nicobar after she finished the race with a timing of 37.680sec.

Kerala's Kesia Verghese (37.984sec) ended a close second, followed by Manipur's Chabungam Rameshwori Devi (40.860sec). Services walked away with all three medals in the men's 4km Individual Pursuit Final through Manjeet Singh (4:57.926sec), Sombir (5:05.212sec) and Amit Jangara (5:06.625sec) respectively.

The women's 3km Individual Pursuit gold was bagged by Kerala's Anjitha Subalithan T P(4:22.213sec), beating Manipur's Abe Devi Rajkumari (4:23.023sec) and Maharashtra's Rutuja Satpute (4:23.630sec).

On the final day of canoeing and kayaking, SSCB fetched the top honours in 500m Men's Four Kayak (K4m), clocking (01:32.00), finishing ahead of Kerala ((01:34.00) and Uttarakhand (01:35.00). The women's race was won by Kerala (02:15.00), while Madhya Pradesh (02:19.00) and Manipur (02:25.00) nabbed the silver and bronze respectively. The 500m women's Singles Canoe (C1w) gold also bagged by Kerala (02:39.00).

Madhya Pradesh (02:47.00) and Delhi (03:06.00) took the silver and bronze. At the badminton court in Kochi, the singles matches began today and some of the prominent names making the second round were Kerala's PC Thulasi, who defeated Maharashtra's Saili Rane 21-10 18-21 21-15. Also advancing was Maharashtra's Sayali Gokhale with a 21-6 21-12 triumoh over Kerala's Agna Anto.

The boxing competition in Thrissur was dominated by SSCB with former youth medallist Durga Rao Vankala (56kg) beating Aman Thakur to enter the semifinals and be assured of a medal along with . The only stunner today was former youth world champion Thokchom Nanao Singh, representing SSCB, bowing out. Nanao lost 6-18 to Andhra Pradesh's Shyam Kumar Kakara.