G Lakshmanan of Services completed a double by cruising to victory in the men's 10,000 metres on the final day of the 57th National Open Athletics Championship at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai today. Lakshmanan had won the 5,000 metres gold on Monday.Railways with 296 points won the overall team championship with Services a distant second with 182 points in their kitty.Also, Railways topped the women's team standings while Services reigned supreme in the men's section. As far as the medals tally, Railways finished with 16 gold medals followed by the Services with 12.Tamil Nadu athlete Santhosh Kumar, who set a new meet record in the 400 metres hurdles and Chintha Yadav of Railways, the steeplechase winner, were named the 'best male and female athlete' respectively.L Surya, too achieved a double, by coasting to victory in the 10,000 metres. She had won the 5,000 metres event on the opening day of the championship.In the triple jump, national record holder Ranjith Maheshwari of Railways was relegated to fourth with a leap of 15.94 metres. Kerala's K Sreejithmon jumped a distance of 16.15m to capture the gold medal.The Services team won the 4 X 100 metres gold while Haryana men secured the 4 X 400 metres title.In the women's 800 metres event, Olympian M R Poovamma of ONGC finished a poor fifth in a time of 2:09.24. Lili Das of Railways secured the gold in 2:04.51 followed by Sipra Sarkar of West Bengal.The women's 20 kilometre walk saw ONGC's Priyanka take the gold.Ravina of Haryana and L Deepmala Devi (Railways) took second and third places. Purnima Hembram of Karnataka with 5,126 points took the heptathlon gold. In the pole vault, event was won by Khyathi Vakharia of Karnataka, who cleared 3.90 metres.
News On AIR | September 28, 2017 8:17 PM
Lakshmanan completes double at National Open Athletics C'ship