Nandini races to 100m hurdles silver at 36th National Games

Telangana athlete Agasara Nandini raced to a silver in the 100m hurdles event to add one more medal to the tally, at the ongoing 36th National Games

Hyderabad: Telangana athlete Agasara Nandini raced to a silver in the 100m hurdles event to add one more medal to the tally, at the ongoing 36th National Games in Gujarat, on Tuesday.

The Student of TSWREIS clocked 13.38 seconds for the second place. Andhra Pradesh’s Jyoti Yarraji continued her good run to clinch gold with a timing of 12.79 seconds. Jharkhand’s Sapna Kumari, with a timing of 13.42 seconds, clinched bronze medal.

---

In the women’s basketball event, Telangana defeated Assam 98-48 to make it to semifinals. They will take on Kerala for a place in the final next.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh’s Ram Baboo shattered the national record in the men’s 35km race walk event en route winning the gold medal on the concluding day of athletics competition.

Baboo, an unemployed physical education graduate, won the event in 2 hours 36 minutes 34 seconds, bettering the earlier national record of 2:40.16, which was in the name of Haryana’s Juned Khan who finished second on Tuesday with a time of 2:40.51.

It is the fifth national record set at the Games, and the third in track and field events, after the women’s and men’s pole vault national marks by Rosy Meena Paulraj (Tamil Nadu) and Siva Subramaniam (Services) respectively.

The other two national records were in weightlifting competition. The 35km race walk event was introduced in India only last year in the wake of World Athletics’ decision to do away with the 50km event after the Tokyo Olympics. He was the inaugural champion in the National Open Championships in Warangal last year when he won in 2:46:31.00.

In the weightlifting arena, Uttar Pradesh’s Purnima Pandey overcame a stiff back and clinched gold in the women’s 87kg class. Purnima, who finished sixth at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, did enough to take the top spot with a total lift of 215kg, with 95kg in snatch and 120kg in clean and jerk.

Maharashtra’s Richa Chordia and Sanyukta Kale shared the Rhythmic Gymnastics honours in the Sama Indoor Sports Complex in Vadodara. Sanyukta, the Thane athlete, topped the Hoop events with 26.05 points while Richa Chordia proved better with the Ball, catching the judges’ eyes to pocket 25.30 points.