Baranica wins pole vault, Mubassina pips Shaili in long jump

Fresh from her Asian Games bronze medal, Baranica Elangovan won the women’s pole vault clearing 4.10m in the National Open Athletics Championships at the JLN Stadium here on Saturday.

Baranica became the first Indian pole vaulter to win an Asian Games medal, clearing 4.15m to share third place with Kazakhstan’s Polina Ivanova.

The Railways athlete has been impressive this year. She set the national indoor record with a clearance of 4.22m in Bhubaneswar in March, improving it to 4.23m in May. G Sindhushree has since broken the national record with a 4.25m effort, making the domestic women’s pole vault season exciting. Karnataka’s Sindhushree could clear only 3.80m on Saturday as she finished third. Railways’ Mariya Jaison was second with a mark of 3.90m.

“It has been a long season and I just wanted to finish it off on a high,” said the 29-year-old Baranica from Tamil Nadu.

There was a close contest in the low-key women’s long jump. Mubassina Mohammed won (6.38m) by narrowly edging out Shaili Singh (6.37m). Mubassina, 20, who hails from Lakshadweep and has a personal best of 6.53m, has given a good account of herself this season. This was her first major domestic title. The ONGC athlete will take confidence from the win heading into next year. Nidhi was third (6.28m).

In the 4x400m mixed relay, Kiran Pahal’s strong anchor leg helped Railways win at 3:21.60secs. K Avinash, Sonia Baishya and Vikrant Panchal were the other members of the quartet. They finished ahead of Haryana (3:22.43) and Rajasthan (3:25.54).

Pahal was part of the women’s 4x400m relay team that won India’s only gold in track and field at the Asian Games.

In women’s hammer, 18-year-old Anushka Yadav broke the meet record with a throw of 66.53m, improving on the five-year-old mark of 64.42m set by Manju Bala. Anushka, whose personal best is 67.02m, finished fifth at the Asian Games.

Railways’ Rohit won the men’s high jump clearing 2.19m, ahead of teammate Jesse Sandesh (2.16m). Aaditya Raghuvanshi of Madhya Pradesh came third on countback. Commonwealth Games and Asian Games silver medallist Sarvesh Kushare had entered but did not compete.