Naunidh Singh of Punjab raced to a national record in the men's 110 metres hurdles on the final day of the 45th Open National Athletics Championships as Railways claimed the lion's share of the medals, at the GMC Balayogi stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Railways topped the tally with an overall score of 454 points, while Services (162.5) and Police (69) finished second and third respectively.
Naunidh timed 14.05 seconds to erase Guruprith Singh's record of 14.07 seconds, set at Lucknow in 2001. He also improved upon his own mark of 14.12 seconds, clocked at Bangalore in 2003.
In a start-to-finish mission, Naunidh took an early lead, leaving behind Krishna Mohan (Services) and P E Augustine (Railways) for the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Ranjit Maheswari (Railways) created a new meet record in the men's triple jump, clearing a distance of 16.39 metres, eclipsing the previous meet record of Sanjay Kumar Rai in 2001 at Chennai.
Amarjeet Singh (Rlys) and Malkit Singh (Punjab) took silver and bronze respectively.
Gurmeet Kaur improved upon her own skills by throwing the javelin to 53.77 metres, which better than her 2002 reading of 52.91m.
Her throw was, however, much below the national record of 58.64 metres, which also happens to be in her name.
Megha Pardesi (Rlys) and S.Saraswathi (Rlys) took the second and third slots respectively.
In other events, Gurmeet Singh (Punjab) won gold in the 20 kilometre walk, clocking 1 hr 30.50 minutes while Sumantro Singh (Ser) and Vijay Gehlot respectively followed the winner.
L Arunadevi (Rlys) earned Railways one more gold, winning the 10,000 metres while Anuradha Biswal struck the first gold for Orissa in women 100 metre hurdles.
Results:
Overall champions: 1. Railways 454.000 points, 2. Services 162.500 pts, 3. Police 69.000 pts.
Men: 1. Railways 176.000 pts, 2. Services 162.500 pts, 3. Police 58.000 pts.
Women: 1. Railways 278.000 pts, 2. Punjab 23.00 pts, 3. LIC 21.000 pts.
Final day's results:
Men:
110m hurdles: 1. Naunidh Singh (Pun) 14.05 seconds (national record), 2. Krishna Mohan (Ser) 14.18, 3. P E Augustin (Rlys) 14.48.
Triple Jump: 1. Ranjit Maheshwary (Rlys) 16.39 metres (NMR), 2. Amarjeet Singh (Rlys) 15.78, 3. Malkit Singh (Pun) 15.60.
1500m: 1. Pritam Bind (Uttaranchal) 3:48.46 seconds, 2. C Hamza (Ser) 3:48.75, 3. Gamnda Ram (Ser) 3:51.47.
4x400: 1. Railways 3:12.68 seconds, 2. Srvices 3:12.70, 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:13.65.
10,000m: 1. Jagannath Lakade (Ser) 31:23.65 seconds, 2. Deep Chand (Ser) 31:24.40, 3. S Raghunath (Rlys) 31:37.05.
20 km walk: 1. Gurmeet Singh (Pun) 1:30:50.00 seconds, 2. Sumantro Singh (Ser) 1:33:52.00, 3. Vijay Gehlot (Rlys) 1:36:11.0.
Women:
Javelin throw: 1. Gurmeet Kaur(LIC) 53.77 metres (NMR), 2. Megha Pardeshi (Rlys) 50.17, 3. S Saraswathi (Rlys) 48.92.
1500m: 1. O P Jaisha (Rlys) 4:17.78 seconds, 2. Sinimol Paulose (Steel Plants) 4:21.15, 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Rlys) 4:36.90.
10,000m: 1. L Aruna Devi (Rlys) 36:51.13 seconds, 2. Pampa Chanda (Rlys) 37:15.70, 3. Madhuri Gurnule (LIC) 38:12.55.
100m hurdles: Anuradha Biswal (Orissa) 13.99 seconds, 2. K N Priya (TN) 14.24, 3. Amita Sethi (Orissa) 14.31.
Shot put: Latha Nicolus(Rlys) 14.31 metres, 2. Saroj Sihag (Har) 13.58, 3. Archana Mondol (Rlys) 13.09.
4x400 relay: 1. Railways 3:41.83 seconds, 2. Tamil Nadu 3:49.78, 3. Punjab 3:52.84.
