Odisha achieved impressive success on the opening day of the 58th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship at Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati today with Jauna Murmu bagging women’s 400 hurdles gold medal with New Meet Record and sprinters Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda reaching women’s 200m finals.

Janua clocked 57.02 seconds in the final to erase the previous meet record of Anu Raghavan, who had achieved it at Guntur last year with a timing of 57.21 seconds. Jauna also qualified for the forthcoming Jakarta Asian Games, performing much better than the qualifying mark of 57.52 seconds, set by Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

Dutee and Srabani entered the 200m finals by winning the respective heats in 23.46 and 24.04 seconds respectively. Dutee also secured the Asian Games ticket, meeting the AFI qualifying mark of 23.50 seconds. The 200m final will take place tomorrow.

Of the 10-member star-studded state squad fielded by Odisha Athletic Association, women discus thrower Parbati Sethi and male 800m runner Kuna Marandi failed to impress. Parbati finished seventh with an effort of 42.32 metre, while Kuna came ninth in heat-3, clocking 1:58.82 seconds. The championship will conclude on June 29.
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PHOTO: Jauna Murmu in action on the opening day of the 58th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship in Guwahati on June 26, 2018.