Patiala: Seema Punia became the latest Indian athlete to qualify for the Commonwealth Games as the 34-year-old won the women’s discus throw at the ongoing Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships in Patiala with a new meet record.

In the 22nd edition of the meet, Punia, who was competing in her first competition of the year, flung the iron disc a distance of 61.05 metres in her final of six attempts, at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

She broke the old mark of 60.95 m set by Neelam J Singh back in 2002. The throw won gold but more importantly, by virtue of bettering the Athletics Federation of India’s qualifying guidelines of 59 m, earned Punia the right to improve on her silver medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014.

The throw was a massive improvement for Punia who had a dismal last year, managing a best effort of 54.14m in December. “It is difficult to compete with injury. I was dealing with a shoulder injury and also had kidney issues last season. At this stage in your career, you don’t have any option but to compete with injuries.

For the moment though, Punia’s focus is simple: “Right now my only target is to do well in the Commonwealth Games. This could probably be the final time I compete in the Commonwealth Games. I want to win a gold,” she said.

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Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who had earlier qualified as the winner of the Indian Grand Prix, where she had thrown 59.18 metres, came second. The former World Junior bronze medallist managed 57.75 metres, and hoped to do better in Gold Coast.

Siva vaults to new heights

Pole vaulter S Siva shattered his own national record by clearing a height of 5.15 m. Having cleared a height of 5.14 m in what was his breakout performance at the Federation Cup last year at the same venue, he bettered his own feat.

Despite the 21-year-old’s best effort, Siva, the army havildar from Kallanai in the Trichy district of Tamil Nadu, would fall short of the Commonwealth Games qualifying standard set by the AFI of 5:45 m.

“I was having a fever for the last two days. I was jumping 5:40 in practice. If I was in good fitness, I would have come close to qualifying,” he said.

In other events, Govindan Lakshmanan eclipsed the old meet mark in the men’s 5000 m run. Lakshmanan clocked 13:47:28 seconds to erase the old figure of 13:49:17 set by Kheta Ram in Patiala in 2014. Despite the run Lakshmanan would fall short of the CWG qualifying standard of 13:25:00.

Lakshmanan said that with more competition, he might have gone below 13 minutes and 20 seconds. The long distance runner said, “Here, I don’t have any competition. So it’s difficult for me to push myself. Maybe if I go outside and get pushed, I can do better.”

Lakshmanan-Suriya pull off bro-sis one-two

In the women’s 5000m, L Suriya didn’t push herself too hard even as she claimed gold with a time of 15:46:96 seconds. Suriya who held the old meet record of 15:39:55 recorded in 2016 said she knew she would find it difficult to match the qualifying standard of 15:09:00 seconds and said she was focusing on qualifying in the women’s 10000m in which she had a better chance.

Suriya’s coach Surinder Singh said that he fully expected his athlete to break through the AFI’s CWG criteria of 32 minutes and 30 seconds based on her 5000 metre performance. “Our main aim is the 10,000. Here, she was testing herself but in that race, we will go all out to try and seal qualification.”

Also disappointed after winning a gold was hammer throw national record holder and defending champion Sarita Devi who managed a best effort of 63.80m. This was shy of her personal best of 65.25m that she had recorded in the same competition last year and further short of the qualification mark of 68.32m. “I am disappointed on missing out on the Commonwealth Games. I was looking to get close to the qualifying standard but I fell short. My goal is to qualify for the Asian Games now,” she said.