Kuldev pips Joseph and Abraham to take gold in 400m hurdle

In a day of upsets, Asian Games gold medallist Joseph Abraham and Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Renjith Maheshwary had to settle for silver and bronze respectively in the athletics competitions here on Sunday.

Kuldev Singh provided the big surprise of the day 400m hurdler pushed national record holder Abraham of Kerala to second spot with a record timing to lead the golden run of Punjab who clinched five yellow metals on Sunday.

There was another upset in the men's discus throw when national record holder Vikas Gowda had to retun empty-handed as he settled for fifth finish.

A timing of 50.31 seconds ensured Kuldev break the P Shankar's meet record of 51.37 as the ace 400m hurdler Abraham clocked a poor 50.38 for the silver.

Satinder Singh of Punjab bagged the bronze with a timing of 50.39.

National record holder Maheshwary with a disappointing timing of 16.09 settled for the bronze in triple jump as Punjab's Arpinder Singh (16.62m) and Jharkhand's Amirjeet Singh (16.10) grabbed the top two spots.

Services Sandeep Karan Singh (3:48.05) clinch the 1500m title while Uttarakhand's Ravinder S Rautela (3:48.47) and Kerala's Sajeesh Joseph (3:48.91) took home silver and bronze respectively.

Representing Jharkhand, Bengal high jumper Hari Sankar Roy added to the hosts gold tally while Services Jitin C Thomas and Tamil Nadu's Benedict Starley settled for the silver and bronze medals.

The trio cleared an identical 2.13m as the top three positions were decided on countback at 2.10.

Rajasthan's Vikas Poonia (53.47) won the men's discus throw title while Punjab's Kirpal Singh (51.59) and Uttar Pradesh's Anshu Rai (51.35) took home silver and bronze. In the women's 400m hurdles, Andhra's R Elavarasi (1:00.17), Kerala's Anu R (1:00.69) and Jharkhand's Soniya KA (1:00.75) bagged the top three places.

Punjab women athletes ruled the roost in the 1500m, heptathlon and discus throw clinching the yellow metals. OP Jaisha stopped the clock at 4:24.14 for the 1500m gold while Haryana's Sushma Devi (4:25.69) and Jharkhand's Jhuma Khatoon (4:27.07) bagged silver and bronze.

Navpreet Kaur logged 5079 points for the heptathlon title as Kerala's K D Sindhu (4844) and Tamil Nadu's D Karpuramala (4728) took the silver and bronze.

Harwant Kaur bagged the fifth gold for Punjab in hurling the discus to 54.54 as Haryana's Rinku Sangwan (46.50) and Punjab's Baljit Kaur (44.65) took silver and bronze.