Taiwan Athletics Open: Long jumper Nayana James wins gold, Animesh takes 200m top spot in Spain

Nayana James (Pic: AFI)

Top Indian long jumper Nayana James continued her strong form as she won gold medal at the Taiwan Athletics Open with an effort of 6.43m in Taipei on Sunday.

The 28-year-old Nayana achieved her best jump of the day in the Taiwan Athletics Open in her third attempt under rainy conditions at the World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level event.

This was her best jump outside India. Her personal best stands at 6.67m which she recorded while winning gold at the Indian Open Jumps competition in March.

She had also won gold at the Federation Cup last month with an effort of 6.53m.

Meanwhile, rising Indian sprinter Animesh Kujur won gold in the men's 200m race at the Trofeo de Atletismo Ciudad de Salamanca-Memorial Carlos Gil Perez athletics meet in Spain.

The 21-year-old Animesh ran 20.59 seconds to win the race but the wind speed of +4.9 m/s at the Helmantico Stadium in Salamanca on Saturday was not legal. The maximum permitted wind speed is +2.0 m/s.

His previous personal best was 20.62 seconds which he had clocked while winning gold in the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar earlier this month.

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Spain's Daniel Rodriguez Serrano (20.85s) and Mauro Triana López (21.27s) finished second and third respectively.

The men's 200m national record of 20.52 seconds stands in the name of Amlan Borgohain set two years ago. The Paris Olympics qualification time is 20.16 seconds.

Earlier, Animesh ran his personal best time of 10.27 seconds to finish fourth in the men's 100m race, just four-hundredths of a second shy of the national record set by Manikanta Hoblidhar last year.

Tejas Shirse, the national record holder 110m hurdler, clocked 13.57 seconds to finish second in the same World Athletics Category F meet in Salamanca, Spain.

A few days back, Shirse had set the men's 110m hurdles national record of 13.41 seconds during a World Athletics Continental Tour (Challenger level) meeting in Jyvaskyla, Finland.

At the Limoges National Meeting in France, a World Athletics Category D event, Commonwealth Games triple jump gold medallist Eldhose Paul took the top spot with an effort of 16.24m, while Jesse Sandesh leapt 2.18m for the high jump title.

(With agency inputs)