Patiala, March 7 (IANS) Two-time Asian Games champion, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, showed early form as he won the gold medal in the men’s shot put competition on the opening day of the two-day 5th Indian Open Throws Competition at Patiala’s National Institute of Sports Campus in Punjab on Saturday.

The 31-year-old seasoned shot putter hurled the iron ball to a distance of 20.51m, a season best, to win gold. “I’m satisfied with my performance,” Toor said after the competition.

Of the six attempts, Toor crossed the 20m mark thrice, hinting that he was enjoying good training sessions. The other three attempts had no marks. His other two throws were 20.02m and 20.07m

Toor’s national record of 21.17m was recorded in June 2023. His main goal this season is to peak later this year to retain his title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan.

Spotlight on Saturday was also on hammer thrower Damneet Singh, who represented Reliance in the weekend throwing competition in Patiala. On his way to winning gold, Damneet Singh fell short of the national record of 70.73m. His best throw on Saturday was 70.64m. His other throws were 69.29m, 70.21m, F, 70.04m, and 67.57m.

Results:

Men:

Shot put: Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 20.51m, Karanveer Singh (Punjab) 19.36m, Sanyam (Haryana) 18.28.

Hammer Throw: Damneet Singh (Reliance) 70.64m, Ashish Jakhar (Army) 68.09m, Devang (Railway Sports) 63.27m.

U20: Hammer Throw: Aman (Haryana) 64.49m, Abdul Rahaman (Madhya Pradesh) 63.35m, Shubham M (Haryana) 63.00m.

U20: Shot put: OmmKar Prasad Nand (Odisha) 17.85m, Harshit Gahlot (Haryana) 17.02m, Yash Chhikara (Delhi) 17.01m.

Women

Discus throw: Nikita Kumari (Rajasthan) 51.78m, Amanat Kamboj (Punjab) 51.13m, Supriya Aatri (NCOE Patiala) 50.09m.

Javelin: Sanjana Choudhary (NCOE Patiala) 54.20m, Deepika (JSW) 52.88m, Jyoti (JSW) 52.16m.

Hammer Throw: Tanya Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 61.09m, Divya Shandilya (Odisha) 53.31m, Soniya (Rajasthan) 52.29m.

U20: Hammer Throw: Khushi (Haryana) 49.45m, Ankita Mohapatra (Odisha) 45.49m, Ayeesha Banu M (Andhra Pradesh) 45.37m.

Shot put: Yogita (Haryana) 16.44m, Shiksha (Reliance) 16.30m, Rekha (NCOE Patiala) 15.57m.

U20: Shot put: Pooja Kumari (NCOE Patiala) 15.04m, Anupriya VS (Kerala) 14.69m, Munesh (BSF) 13.04m.

U18: Shot put: M Reddy Sanjana (Karnataka) 15.30m, Aarti (Haryana) 13.22m.

U18: Shot put: Nishchay (Haryana) 19.78m, Yuvraj Singh (Rajasthan) 17.83m, Nitish Kumar (Haryana) 17.83m

U18: Discus throw: Oshin (Reliance) 43.61m, Sona Mohan T (Kerala) 39.55m, Maninder Kaur (Chandigarh) 39.28m.

–IANS

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