Chennai, May 30
MP Jabir bagged a gold medal in men's 400m hurdles at the Indian Grand Prix 2 tournament at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Thursday.
Jabir, a Tokyo 2020 Olympian, won the A final in 49.94 seconds, beating Asian Championships bronze medalist T Santhosh Kumar, who finished second in 50.14. Sathish K won the bronze medal, clocking in at 51.46.
This was MP Jabir's first competitive event since the Indian Championships in Bhubaneswar in June 2023. Despite running in the sub-50s, Jabir fell short of the 48.70-second Paris 2024 Olympics qualification threshold.
Santhosh Kumar, who won the 400m hurdles gold in the Federation Cup earlier this month, came back to capture the gold medal in the men's 400m. He finished in 46.46, ahead of K Avinash (47.30) and Kapil (47.66).
Vithya Ramraj, a multiple Asian Games medallist, won two gold medals at the Indian Grand Prix 2. She won gold in the women's 400m hurdles in 57.28 seconds and then doubled her tally by winning the women's 400m in 53.00 seconds.
Abha Khatua, the Asian Championships silver medalist, also won the gold medal in the women's shot put with a throw of 17.13m. She set the national record of 18.41m at the Federation Cup 2024 earlier this month. The 28-year-old has yet to clear the Olympic qualifying mark of 18.80m.
R Yugendran, 20, won the men's pole vault title with a personal best of 5.20m, setting a new meet record in the process. M Gowtham won silver with 5.10m, while Sidharth AK claimed bronze with a clearance of 4.90m.