Railways' top athlete Joseph Abraham continued his good run in the domestic season and bagged the gold medal in the 400m hurdles at the 49th Open National Athletics Championships in Bhopal on Thursday.
Abraham bettered the meet record time of 50.43 seconds, set by Sahib Singh in 1998, by clocking 50.26 seconds.
Although he broke the record, he was far from his personal best of 49.51 seconds, which he set as a National record in 2007.
"I'm surprised with my time, but very happy to beat the meet record," said Abraham.
"I'm really in a good tune and I know that I have to give at least my personal best to win the gold medal at the 18th Asian Athletics Championships," he added.
His teammates Avin A Thomas and Satinder Singh clocked 50.70s and 51.52s to win silver and bronze respectively.
V S Surekha of Indian Railways also established a new meet record, in the women's pole vault, bettering her own record with a leap of 4.00 metres. She improved upon her own mark of 3.85 metres, set in 2006.
Surekha tried to break her own National record of 4.08m, but couldn't succeed in three attempts.
Her teammates Madhusini Devi, with a clearance of 3.50 metres, finished second, and Tapsi Nandi, who cleared 3.30 metres, settled for the third spot.
In the men's triple jump, Renjith Singh erased teammate Amarjeet Singh's meet record of 16.53m, created in 2007, by clearing 16.68m in his fifth attempt.
Amarjeet settled for the silver with a jump 16.22m.
Indian Railways continued to rule the roost with 16 gold and go on top of the medal tally, while Services, with four gold, is placed second.
Results
Men's 400m hurdles
1. Joseph G. Abraham (Railways) 50.26,
2. Avin A Thomas (Railways) 50.70
3. Satinder singh (Railways) 51.52
Women's pole vault
1. VS Surekha (Railways) 4.00m
2. Madhusini Devi (Railways) 3.50m
3. Tapsi Nandi (Railways) 3.30m
Women's high jump
1. Kavya Muthanna (Jharkhand) 1.75m
2. K C Chandanna (Karnataka) 1.70m
2. Sahana kumari (Railways) 1.70m
Women's 400m run
1. Manjit Kaur (Punjab) 53.62
2. Tintu Luka (Kerala) 54.15
3. K Soujanya (AP) 54.54
Men's triple jump
1. Ranjith M (Railways) 16.68m
2. Amarjeet Singh (Railways) 16.22m
3. Saurabh Singh (Police) 15.37m
Women's 3000m steeplechase
1. Kiran Tiwari (Railways) 10:39.04
2. Remeswari MV (Kerala) 11:39.84
3. Wahida Rehman (Police) 12:01.36
Men's 3000m steeplechase
1. Elam Singh (Services) 8:53.26
2. Om Prakash (Services) 8:53.56
3. Jai Bir Singh (Services) 9:06.11
