By Admin 
Bhairabi Roy overcame a venue-related confusion to claim the women’s triple jump title while National record holder pole vaulter Dev Meena finished a disappointing third on the rain-battered opening day of the National Open athletics championships at the Birsa Munda Stadium, Morabadi, here on Saturday.
Following her personal best of 13.39 in the inter-Railway meet three weeks ago, the 30-year-old Bhairabi, who shifted her training base from Kolkata to Mumbai two months back after struggling with a hamstring injury last year, returned 13.10m on her fifth attempt and beat Poorva Sawant by five centimetres.
“I could have done better. I reached another venue bearing the same name, travelled nine kilometre amid heavy traffic and barely managed to report for the competition. I could not warm up and the track also became slow due to rain,” said Bhairabi, who is expecting another medal in long jump.
In the men’s pole vault, the athletes struggled as they could not see the box and bar properly due to poor lighting. Rain also posed problems as the competition was stopped midway.
The top-four finishers cleared 5.10m after several failed attempts.
M. Gowtham took the gold, followed by Rambeer, Meena and former National record holder Siva S. World University Games silver medallist Seema beat 18-year-old Sanjana Singh in the final lap to take the women’s 5,000m gold with 16:01.27s. Nevertheless, it was a satisfying performance for Sanjana, who achieved her personal best of 16:03.23.
Manikanta Hoblidhar equalled his 2023 meet record time, 10.23s, in the 100m semifinals and emerged as the fastest among the men so far.
The results: Finals (winners only): Men: 5000m: Prince Kumar (AIP) 14:06.57s; Pole vault: M. Gowtham 5.10m.
Women: 5000m: Seema (HP) 16:01.27s; Triple jump: Bhairabi Roy (Rlys) 13.10m; Discus: Seema (Har) 55.26m.