Sarita Singh, S Shiva set new national marks in Federation Cup athletics

Sarita Singh broke the women’s hammer national mark while S Shiva eclipsed the pole vault record on Day 1 of the Federation Cup athletics in Patiala.

Sarita R Singh of Uttar Pradesh a national record in women’s hammer throw on Day 1 of the Federation Cup athletics championships at the National Institute of Sports Campus here on Thursday.

Sarita R Singh became the first Indian woman to cross the 65m mark in hammer throw. (HT Photo)

Sarita capped a series of 60 plus throws with a fifth attempt of 65.25 metres, becoming the first Indian woman to cross the 65m mark. She eclipsed the previous national mark of 62.74m set by Manju Bala at Lucknow in 2014.

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Tamil Nadu’s S Shiva broke the pole vault national mark, clearing 5.14m. He improved on the previous record of 5.13m.

Chief coach Bahadur Singh hoped Sarita’s form would make a difference in the Asian Athletics championships in Bhuvneshwar from July 6-9.

Sarita was jubilant. “I haven’t taken a single day’s leave for the last six months. My hard work paid off.”

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Manpreet Kaur won the shot put with a new meet record of 17.04m, bettering Harbans Kaur’s mark of 16.94m.

The other meet mark to fall was in the women’s 400m hurdles, where Kerala’s Anu Raghavan clocked a personal best of 57.39 secs, bettering the meet record of 57.60 secs, set by Shahebani Oram in 2002. PT Usha’s national record, set in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, stands at 55.42 secs.