Lucknow: Arpinder Singh of Punjab smashed the national record in men's triple jump with a stupendous jump of 17.17m to win gold and qualify for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games on the concluding day of the 54th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships on Sunday.
21-year-old Arpinder erased Renjith Maheswary's earlier national record by 10cm. Arpinder was second behind Maheswary with a best jump of 16.49m till the penultimate round before the national record leapt in his last round.
Maheswary had to settle for a silver with an effort of 16.54m.
Arpinder is now both the Commonwealth and Asian leader this season so far.
Quarter-miler M R Poovamma also showed brilliant form as she ran a splendid 400m race, clocking a career best 51.73 seconds, that erased Mandeep Kaur's six-year-old meet mark by just 1/100th of a second. Her time put her on top of Asian rankings for the season and 10th in Commonwealth list. Tintu Luka was second in 53.22 secs.
Tamil Nadu's Arokia Rajiv, after two third-place finishes in the last two editions, won the men's 400m race piping defending champion and pre-race favourite Kunhu Muhammed 46.13 to 46.17 secs.
Maharashtra's Krishnakumar Rane finally realised his dream of becoming a national champion in men's 100m dash as he won the race in 10.32 secs, just missing Anil Kumar's national mark by 0.02 secs. Manikanda Raj, who earlier won the 200m, settled with a silver medal in 10.52 secs while defending champion Aniruddha Gujar went home with a bronze in 10.63s.
What surprised everyone, however, was the tremendous form shown by Tamil Nadu sprinter Saradha Narayana, who won the women's 100m sprint in 11.39 secs. It was just 1/100th of a second shorter than Rachita Mistry's official national record of 11.38s.
Karnataka's H M Jyothi, who clocked an impressive 11.48 secs while qualifying in her heats on Saturday, finished second with a decent 11.49s whereas Odisha girl Srabani Nanda took her second bronze medal from the meet in 11.59s.
Two other favourites, defending champion Asha Roy (11.79s) and Merlin Joseph (11.88s) - whose national mark of 11.35 secs in last year's Ranchi National Open was not ratified by the federation - finished fourth and sixth respectively.
Uttar Pradesh hammer thrower Chandrodaya Narayan Singh completed a hat-trick of victories with a new meet mark of 69.38m.
Kerala's 4x400m relay quartet consisting of Anu Mariam Jose, Anilda Thomas, Chinchu Jose and Tintu Luka recorded a new meet record of 3:38.40 to win gold.
Kerala won the team title with 152.5 points (68 by men, 84.5 by women), while Tamil Nadu finished runners-up with 133 (65+68) points.
Triple jumper Arpinder (Punjab) and 400m runner Poovamma (Karnataka) were adjudged 'Best Athletes' of the championships.
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