Bengaluru

Army’s 26 years old Asian Games medalist erased a long standing meet record in the men’s 5,000m track race on the opening day of the 63rd National Open Athletics Championships being held here on Friday at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

On his way to winning the gold medal in the men’s 5,000m track race in the morning session, Singh representing SSCB clocked 13:54.70 seconds to better the previous time of 13:54.72 set in 1994 by Bahadur Singh.

The SSCB team also had a big advantage on the opening day as they collected as many as four medals in the morning session in the men’s group.

Servin of SSCB won the first gold of the day in the men’s 20km race walk. He clocked 1:25:35.00. Servin’s teammate Arshpreet Singh won bronze (1:26:56.00).

Lovepreet Singh won the fourth medal, a bronze, for SSCB. He clocked 14:00.89 to finish third in the men’s 5,000m track race.

Spotlight was also on the women’s 400m event. Maharashtra’s Aishwarya Mishra advanced to the final with a time of 52.71 seconds, fastest in the semis.

Rupal Chaudhary (53.70 seconds) of Uttar Pradesh was another prominent name who was on course to the medal round.

The domestic meet is sponsored by NEB Sports Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

Results

Women

5,000m: Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 15:47.95 seconds, Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra) 15:55.69 seconds, Lili Das (Railway Sports) 16:25.53 seconds.

Discus throw: Seema (Haryana) 54.89m, Nidhi (Railway Sports) 52.46m, Sanya Yadav (Haryana) 49.84m.

Triple jump: Sheena V (Kerala) 13.27m, Mallala Anusha (Railway Sports) 13.17m, Babisha P (Tamil Nadu) 13.13m.

20km race walk: Ravina (Haryana) 1:35:52.00, Munita Prajapati (Railway Sports) 1:37:40.00, Vandana (Karnataka) 1:39:41.00.

Men

5,000m: Gulveer Singh (SSCB) 13:54.70 (MR) (previous record 13:54.72), Sunil Dawar (Madhya Pradesh) 14:00.50, Lovepreet Singh (SSCB) 14:00.89.

20km race walk: Servin (SSCB) 1:25:35.00, Amit (Haryana) 1:25:40.00, Arshpreet Singh (SSCB) 1:26:56.00.