Tamil Nadu’s Suriya, Lakshmanan take first medals but no Rio berths

Distance runners L. Suriya and G. Lakshmanan clinched gold for Tamil Nadu in their respective events but failed to make the Rio Olympics cut, falling well short of the qualifying mark on the opening day of the 56th national inter-state championships in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Suriya took top honours in the women’s 10,000 metres in 33 minutes 27.01 while training partner Swati Gadhave of Maharashtra was second in 33:45.40. Sanjivani Jadhav, also from Maharashtra, clocked 33:54.77 for the bronze medal.

In the men’s 5,000 metre, Lakshmanan defended his title in style clocking 14:06.04. The Rio Olympic qualifying mark in the 5,000m stands at 13:25.00.

Athletes from Uttar Pradesh filled the other places on the podium besides Lakshmanan. Suresh Kumar Patel, the 2010 Asian junior champion in the 10,000m, pocketed silver in 14:11.45 while Yunus Mohammed took bronze at 14:24.07.

Later, Kerala long jumper V. Neena made a big leap of 6.45m to retain the gold ahead of pre-event favourite and teammate M.A. Prajusha.

Maharashtra’s Shraddha Ghule replicated her third place position from the Delhi Federation Cup with a modest 5.98m.