National Open: Samardeep Gill upstages two time Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor

Ranchi, Sep 29 (PTI) Samardeep Gill upstaged two time Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor for the men's shot put title at the National Open Athletics Championships here on Monday.

In the afternoon session, the focus was on Gill, a promising Madhya Pradesh thrower and six years younger to Toor. After a nervous start, Gill took time to regain his composure and raced to victory with a throw of 19.79m on his last attempt.

"I've been consistently hitting 20m in training. Need to translate practice throws in competition," Gill says after claiming the shot put title.

Gill had series of 18.78m, 18.92m, 19.36m, 19.14m and 19.79m. Toor on the other hand says he wasn’t feeling good to push hard.

"I will take a break and start preparation for 2026,” Toor explained after settling for silver with a throw of 19.32m.

Toor had a series of 18.82m, F, 18.39m, 19.13m, 18.94m and 19.32m.

In other events, Indian Army’s teenaged race walker, Nitin Gupta, outclassed more experienced athletes to stamp his authority in the men’s 20km race walk.

Gupta, who will celebrate his 18th birthday in January next, passed a sterner test of winning a medal, a gold, on his debut in the senior national competition.

Results (Day three) Men: Long jump: Mohd Sazid (Haryana) 7.78m, Sarun Payasingh (Odisha) 7.77m, Bhupender Singh (Railway Sports) 7.58m.

High jump: Rohit (Railway Sports) 2.18m, Aadarsh Ram (Railway Sports) 2.18m, Swadhin Kumar Majhi (Odisha) 2.14m.

Shot put: Samardeep Gill (Madhya Pradesh) 19.79m, Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab) 19.32m, Ravi Kumar (All India Police) 18.23m. Hammer throw: Damneet Singh (Punjab) 68.71m, Ashish Jakhar (SSCB) 66.37m, Mohammad Shahban (SSCB) 65.59m.

20km race walk: Nitin Gupta (SSCB) 1:24:22.98, Paramjeet Singh Bisht (Uttarakhand) 1:25:10.43, Amanjot Singh (SSCB) 1:26:27.14. 4x100m relay: Railway Sports 39.44 seconds, SSCB 39.81 seconds, Odisha 39.89 seconds. Women Javelin throw: Deepika (Railway Sports) 54.86m, Karishma Sanil (Haryana) 53.85m, Rashmi K (Haryana) 52.34m.

Pole vault: Baranica Elangovan (Railway Sports) 4.10m, Mariya Jaison (Railway Sports) 4.05m, Krishna Rachan (Railway Sports) 3.90m.

20km race walk: Munita Prajapati (Railway Sports) 1:36:14.34, Kamla (Rajasthan) 1:37:42.12, Sejal Anil Singh (Maharashtra) 1:38:32.88. 4x100m relay: Railway Sports 45.09 seconds, Karnataka 45.66 seconds, Tamil Nadu 45.76 seconds. PTI BS AT AT