Tokyo Olympics: Shot-putter Tejinder Singh Toor qualifies with record effort

Tejinder Singh Toor

Shot-putter Tejinder Singh Toor qualified for the Tokyo Olympics with a new national record at the Indian Grand Prix 4 here on a day when the national women's 4x100m relay team and sprinter Dutee Chand also breached the previous best marks in the country. Toor crossed the Olympic Qualification mark with a throw of 21.49m and brpke his own National Record.

The Olympic Qualifying effort in this event is 21.10m. The previous record, which was also in Toor's name, stood at 20.92m and was set in 2019. The women's relay team, however, failed to place itself inside the Olympic qualifying bracket despite the record effort of its own. The quartet of Hima Das, Dutee Chand, S Dhanalakshmi and Archana Suseendran clocked 43.37 seconds to win the race ahead of India 'B' team (48.02 seconds) and Maldives (50.74) in the three team race. The Indian team bettered the previous record of 43.42 seconds set in 2016 in Almaty by the quartet of Merlin K Joseph, H M Jyothi, Srabani Nanda and Dutee. But the quartet failed to clock below 43.05 seconds needed to be among the top 16 teams in the Road to Tokyo list.

Sixteen team will run in the women's 4x100m relay race in Tokyo Games. India was placed 22nd before Monday's race on the basis of its 43.81 seconds performance during the 2019 Asian Championships. Monday's 43.37 seconds will take India to the 20th spot. Olympic-bound Kamalpreet Kaur bettered her earlier national record mark in women's discus throw by hurling the iron disc to a distance of 66.59m. But her performance will not be counted as the new national record as she was the lone competitor in the event. "As per rules, for national record purposes, the number of competitors should at least be three. So, her performance will not be counted as national record. But it will be considered for other purposes like ranking," AFI Secretary Ravinder Chaudhry told PTI.

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Kaur had become the country's first woman discus thrower to breach the 65m mark with a national record mark of 65.06m during the Federation Cup here in March, which also booked her a spot in the Tokyo Olympics. Her performance on Monday will place her 8th in the Road to Tokyo list, and could put her in the medal contention bracket. The bronze medal winners in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics came up with 66.38m and 65.34m efforts respectively. Sprinter Dutee Chand also shattered a national record in the women's 100m event. She completed the race in 11.17seconds. However, the Olympic Qualification time in this event is 11.15s. The previous record was 11.21 seconds, also created by Dutee.

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