Olympic-Bound Toor Wins Gold, Sets Record in Inter-State Athletics

Tajinder Pal Singh Toor had achieved Tokyo Olympics qualification mark of 21.10m with a record throw of 21.49m.

Olympic-bound Tajinderpal Singh Toor won gold and set a meet record in men's shot put with a throw of 21.10 metres at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Monday.

With less than a month to go for Tokyo Olympics, which run from July 23 to August 8, the burly Punjab thrower was the most consistent athlete in the field as his five legal throws were more than 20m mark in the competition on Monday.

Toor's second throw of 20.63m was better than the Inter-State Athletics record of 20.44m. His next throw was 20.96m while his fourth attempt was 21.10m.

Earlier this week, at the Indian Grand Prix (IGP) IV, Toor had achieved the Olympic qualification mark of 21.10m with a national as well as Asian record of 21.49m.

Annu Rani's gold medal-winning effort of 62.83m in the women's javelin were better than her own Inter-State meet record of 59.87m but she fell short of the Olympic qualification mark of 64m.

The deadline to achieve the Olympic qualification mark is June 29. Annu has missed the qualification mark of 64m, but she could still win a ticket to Japan based on her overall world ranking points. She is currently ranked 14.

Results

Shot Put: 1. Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 21.10m (Meet Record. Old: 20.44m, Inderjeet Singh, Chennai, 2015); 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 19.33; 3. Vanam Sharma (Rajasthan) 18.33.

Javelin Throw: 1. Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 62.83m (Meet Record. Old: 59.87m, Annu Rani, Hyderabad, 2016); 2. Sanjana Choudhary (Rajasthan) 52.65; 3. Pushpa Jakhar (Haryana) 52.48.