Manikanta Hoblidhar returned from a long injury lay-off to be the fastest Indian man on Day One of the 65th National Open athletics championships here on Thursday as he bid to regain his lost position at the top.
The former national record holder, returning to action after almost a year, topped the 100m heats in 10.36 seconds, then bettered it to 10.30s in the semifinals to book his place in the last eight.
Hoblidhar had set a new NR last year with a 10.19s, only to see it snatched away as Gurindervir and Animesh Kujur took charge.
In the men’s 400m, the trio of Manu T.S., Dharamveer Chaudhary and Jay Kumar — part of the relay team at the Asian Games — expectedly did not turn up while M.R. Poovamma gave the event a miss among the women. In their absence, Railways’ Vikrant Panchal was the fastest in 45.88 seconds, the only sub-46 of the meet.
Kiran Pahal, who ran the first leg for the women’s 4x400m relay, did participate and clocked the fastest time across all heats in 54.33s.
However, she pulled out of the semifinals and in the absence of the big names, Rajasthan’s Nitisha clocked 53.80s to be the fastest on the day and advance to the final, along with talented youngster Priya Mohan.
Pal participates
But the man in the spotlight was Abhishek Pal in the 10,000m. Pal, who had been served notice for a female fertility drug in his sample during testing, had been subsequently withdrawn from the Asian Games squad at the last minute despite qualifying for the same.
Pal, however, had not been suspended by NADA with its anti-doping disciplinary panel noting in its report that he was free to participate in competitions till the final disposal of the case, the results subject to the outcome of the proceedings.
On the field, the newest national record holder and local favourite Nirbhay Chaudhary was the best in hammer throw with two 69m efforts, taking gold with 69.42m on his fourth attempt.
Kuldeep Kumar, who finished 10th in pole vault at Asian Games, won with a new meet record of 5.30m. Seema Kaliramna, meanwhile, firmed her reputation as India’s best woman discus thrower with a 57.63m gold, almost 5m better than the second-placed Nitika Kumari.
Long jumper Shaili Singh, who narrowly missed out a medal at the Asian Games finishing fourth, made her triple jump debut on Thursday and finished third with 13.31m even as Asha Ilango cleared 13.89m for gold, matching her lifetime best and setting a new meet record.
The results (Day 1):
Men: 10,000m: 1. Shivaji Madappa (RSPB, 30:30.54), 2. Gaurav Mathur (Del, 30:36.33), 3. Vinod Singh (MP, 30:37.13).
Pole vault: 1. Kuldeep Kumar (MP, 5.30m), 2. Reegan G (SSCB, 5.25m), 3. Rambeer (SSCB, 5.10m).
Hammer throw: 1. Nirbhay Chaudhary (Del, 69.42m), 2. Praveen Kumar (RSPB, 67.73m), 3. Ashish Jakhar (SSCB, 66.86m).
Women: 100m: 1. Giridharani Ravikumar (RSPB, 11.48s), 2. Srabani Nanda (Odi, 11.55s), 3. Priyanka Sikarwar (AIPSCB, 11.59s).
5000m: 1. Shampa Gain (Ben, 16:54.56), 2. Sonam Parmar (MP, 16:56.52), 3. Vandana Mori (Guj, 16:56.62).
Discus: 1. Seema Kaliramna (Har, 57.63m), 2. Nikita Kumari (Raj, 52.48m), 3. Sanya Yadav (Har, 52.45m).
Published – October 08, 2026 10:01 pm IST
