A day after she became only the second Indian woman after Anju Bobby George to clear 6.70 metres, Karnataka's Aishwarya B rewrote the national triple jump record with a leap of 14.14 metres at the ongoing Inter State Senior Athletics Championships in Chennai on Monday.
The 24-year-old broke Mayookha Johny's record of 14.11 metres, set at the Asian Championships in Kobe, Japan, in 2011.
Aishwarya obliterated the meet record on her first jump, comfortably going past Johny's 13.72 that had stood since 2014 with a leap of 13.84 metres. In the process, she also met the cut-off for Commonwealth Games, set at 13.70 metres. An effort of 13.16 metres was followed by 14.14 metres that smashed the 11-year-old national record.
Haryana's Renu took the silver with a jump of 13.43 metres while Andhra Pradesh's Karthika Gothandapani's 13.25m leap earned her a bronze. No other athlete could cross 13 metres.
Aishwarya marked an improvement of 20 centimetres on her previous personal best, an effort of 13.94 metres at the Indian Grand Prix in Thiruvanthapuram in March en route a gold medal. A week later, she won the Inter-Railway Championship in Kolkata with a jump of 13.71 metres.
Monday's effort is only the fourth instance of Aishwarya clearing 13.50 metres, and the first time she has jumped over 14 metres in a competition. She will start favourite to take the long jump gold on Tuesday — her 6.73 metres had come in the qualifying round.
{{/usCountry}}Monday's effort is only the fourth instance of Aishwarya clearing 13.50 metres, and the first time she has jumped over 14 metres in a competition. She will start favourite to take the long jump gold on Tuesday — her 6.73 metres had come in the qualifying round.
{{/usCountry}}Later, Delhi's middle distance runner Kumari Chanda bagged the 800m gold with a time of 2.01.67 minutes. She bettered her personal best of 2.02.11 minutes, set at this year's Federation Cup in Kozhikode. Punjab's Twinkle and Delhi's Shalu Chaudhary rounded off the podium. The 20-year-old has thus completed a golden double, having won the 1500m race on Saturday with a personal best of 4:13:85 minutes.