Annu Rani clinches gold in Federation Cup, qualifies Asian Games

Olympian and javelin thrower Annu Rani clinched a gold medal on the second day of the Federation Cup 2023 athletics event in Ranchi, crossing the Asian Games 2022 qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

At the event held on Tuesday at the Birsa Munda Stadium, Annu breached the all-important qualifying standards with a throw of 59.24 m, way above the standard of 56.46 m set by AFI, as per Olympics.com. She also qualified for the Asian Athletics Championships, scheduled for July in Bangkok, Thailand. The mark set for the women’s javelin throw for earning a qualification in the event is 54.73 m.

The second day of the federation saw 14 finals being played, in which 27 athletes made the cut for the continental athletics event. 20 athletes breached the qualifying standards on Monday as well.

In men’s shot put, Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor won the gold with a throw of 20.42 m, also breaching qualifying standards for both the Asian Games and Asian Athletics Championships on Monday. Besides Tajinderpal, Sahib Singh (19.23 m) and Karanveer Singh (19.05 m) finished second and third and made the cut. Priya H. Mohan emerged victorious in the women’s 400-metre race with an effort of 53.40 seconds and made the cut. Rajesh Ramesh (43.75s) and Muhammed Ajmal (45.85s) finished first and second in the men’s 400 m race and made the cut. But Muhammed Anas Yahiya failed to cross the qualification mark despite a third-place finish with timings of 46.19 s.

Amiya Kumar Mallick won the gold medal in the men’s 100m final with a time of 10.31s, although it was not enough to beat the Asian Championships qualification mark of 10.19s.
Srabani Nanda won the women’s 100-metre race in 11.44 seconds, although she, too, did not make the cut for the continental competition.