National Championship: Himachal's Seema wins 10,000m gold

Bhubaneswar: The top four finishers in the men’s 10000 race at the National Inter-State Championship breached the Asian Games qualifying mark here today. The qualifying time for the Asian Games is 29 minutes, 30 seconds. Uttar Pradesh’s Kartik Kumar (29:01.84) and Gulveer Singh (29:03.78) won gold and silver, respectively, while Delhi’s Pritam Kumar (29:22.36) and Madhya Pradesh’s Harmanjot Singh (29:26.86) finished third and fourth, respectively. Chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair said that the federation will pick the top-two as a country can send only two athletes per event. Himachal Pradesh’s Seema stunned defending champion Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav to win gold in the women’s 10000m race but failed to breach the Asian Games qualifying time. Seema, who had won gold at the National Games last year, clocked 34:20.01, while Jadhav clocked 34:34.10. The Asian Games qualifying time is 32:30.24.