Praveen Chitravel leaps to third best ever mark by an Indian to win gold in TJ

Chennai: Tamil Nadu's Praveen Chitravel produced the third longest-ever jump by an Indian with a stunning effort of 17.18m to clinch gold and qualify for the World Championships on the concluding day of National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here.

The 21-year-old Chitravel crossed the World Championships qualifying mark of 17.14m with a leap of 17.18m in his second attempt. The World Championships will be held in Eugene, USA, from July 15-24.

Abdulla Aboobacker of Kerala, who won the silver on Tuesday with jump of 7.14m, has already qualified for the Worlds.

Chitravel's effort was behind the 17.30m national record of Renjith Maheswary (in 2016) and the 17.19m effort of Aboobacker while winning gold in the Indian Grand Prix 3 in Bhubaneswar last month.

Eldhouse Paul of Kerala, who was third with an effort of 16.81m, also crossed the Commonwealth Games qualifying distance of 16.56m set by Athletics Federation of India.

"I got injured during a competition in Italy and I recovered only two weeks ago. So, I did not train at all and am directly participating in this competition," Chitravel said.

"Two weeks ago, I was able to walk. I am competing here only because of my physios. So, I did not have any expectations. I just prayed to God and jumped."

Karnataka's Aishwarya Babu clinched her second gold in two days by winning the women's long jump with a best effort of 6.60m. She had jumped 6.73m during the qualification round on Sunday, the second best ever by an Indian. Aishwarya had smashed the triple jump national record with an effort of 14.14m on Monday. Kerala's Ancy Sojan (6.49m) and Sruthillekshmi (6.35m) were second and third respectively.