Shot Putter Tajinderpal Toor qualified for the World Championships as he created a new Asian record of 21.77m
in the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium here

The 28-year-old Tajinderpal heaved the best throw of his career on the third attempt. In the process, he broke the previous Asian record
of 21.49m he achieved in Patiala two years ago. He also breached the world championships qualifying mark of 21.40m.

Apart from being the Asian record holder, He is the reigning Asian Games champion and also the Asian indoor champion. He won the
gold medal at the Asian outdoor championships in 2019.

He has participated in six competitions in 2023 and has clinched gold medals in all of them. At Kalinga Stadium Tajinderpal was followed
by Karanveer Singh (19.78m) and Sahib Singh (18.75m), who won silver and bronze medals, respectively.

Commonwealth Games silver medalist long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who qualified for the world championships with an 8.41m leap on
Sunday, produced the best jump of 8.29m to take home the gold medal.

National record holder Jeswin Aldrin settled for silver with a 7.98m effort while P David logged a personal best of 7.94m for bronze.

The women’s long jump event once again saw the 22-year-old national champion Ancy Sojan and 19-year-old Shaili Singh, the 2021 world
U20 championships silver medalist, jostle for the top spot.

Ancy Sojan produced the best jump of 6.51m and beat Shaili Singh for gold by a mere two centimeters. The bronze medal went to Bhavani
Yadav Bhagavathi for a 6.44m jump.

As many as 19 finals from 47 events at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships took place on Monday.

Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw), Jinson Johnson (men’s 1500m), Amlan Borgohain (men’s 200m) stayed true to their favourite tag and
breached the qualifying mark for the Asian Games with gold medal-winning performances.

Former Asian women’s shot-put champion Manpreet Kaur and Harmilan Bains, the 2021 national champion in 800m, settled for silver medals but breached the entry standard for Asian Games.

The javelin throw event, despite the absence of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, proved to be a high-quality affair with Rohit
Yadav fetching the gold medal with the best throw of 83.28m. Kishore Kumar Jena (82.87m) and Shivpal Singh (81.96m) came a close second
and third, respectively.

The 62nd edition of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships was the final chance for Indian athletes to secure spots for the Asian Games 2023, scheduled in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8.

However, The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) selection committee will take a final call on how many athletes will represent the
country in each event.