Gulveer breaks 30-yr-old record, Services bag 4 medals

National record holder Gulveer Singh erased a 30-year-old meet record to win the men's 5,000m race on the opening day of the 63rd National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru on Friday.

The Services runner clocked 13:54.70 seconds to better the previous meet record of 13:54.72 set in 1994 by Bahadur Singh.

The Services team collected as many as four medals in the morning session in the men's group.

Servin won the first gold of the day in the men's 20km race walk. He clocked 1:25:35.00.

Servin's teammate Arshpreet Singh won bronze (1:26:56.00).

Lovepreet Singh won the fourth medal, a bronze, for Services. He clocked 14:00.89 to finish third in the men's 5,000m race.

Spotlight was also on the women's 400m event. Maharashtra's Aishwarya Mishra advanced to the final with a time of 52.71 seconds, the fastest in the semifinals.

Rupal Chaudhary (53.70 seconds) of Uttar Pradesh was another prominent name who made it to the medal round.

Results:

Women: 5,000m: Seema (Himachal Pradesh) 15:47.95 seconds, Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra) 15:55.69 seconds, Lili Das (Railway Sports) 16:25.53 seconds.

Discus throw: Seema (Haryana) 54.89m, Nidhi (Railway Sports) 52.46m, Sanya Yadav (Haryana) 49.84m.

Triple jump: Sheena V (Kerala) 13.27m, Mallala Anusha (Railway Sports) 13.17m, Babisha P (Tamil Nadu) 13.13m.

20km race walk: Ravina (Haryana) 1:35:52.00, Munita Prajapati (Railway Sports) 1:37:40.00, Vandana (Karnataka) 1:39:41.00.

Men: 5,000m: Gulveer Singh (SSCB) 13:54.70 (MR) (previous record 13:54.72), Sunil Dawar (Madhya Pradesh) 14:00.50, Lovepreet Singh (SSCB) 14:00.89.

20km race walk: Servin (SSCB) 1:25:35.00, Amit (Haryana) 1:25:40.00, Arshpreet Singh (SSCB) 1:26:56.00.