Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu), May 28 (PTI) The third and final day of the Tamil Nadu State Senior Athletics Championships at Anna Stadium here witnessed two long jumpers from the southern state join the coveted 8 metres club.
Young P David, representing the SDAT team, breached the 8m mark first by leaping to 8.05m in his third round to take the lead in this event.
David (21), who earlier this month won the Senior Federation Cup title in Ranchi, held a previous best of 7.80m when he finished second behind Kerala’s Murali Sreeshankar in the Indian Grand Prix at Bengaluru last month.
Representing Southern Railway, VK Elakkiyadan, who won a bronze medal in the Asian indoor 60m dash five years ago responded well to David — who is seven years younger than him — with a memorable 8.09 on his sixth and final leap.
It was a good 30 cm better than his recorded personal best of 7.79m from his yet another win at this event in the state meet two years ago in Chennai.
Earlier this year, another Tamil Nadu long jumper Jeswin Aldrin took the national record with a monumental 8.42m in Bellary. His training partner Murali Sreeshankar won a recent international competition in Athens with a season-best 8.18m.
Lokesh Sathyanathan, a Karnataka jumper currently in the United States, also breached the 8m mark earlier this month with a jump of 8.02m to win his event in the Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Clovis, California, on May 13.
Source: PTI News
