Vikrant back to his best, takes javelin KIUG gold with 80m throw

Just a fortnight ago, Vikrant Malik could manage only 74m for the sixth place in the in the National Federation Cup in Ranchi but on Tuesday, the javelin thrower was back to his best in the Khelo India University Games in Lucknow.

The Haryana thrower, the varsities National champion in Chennai with 77.25m in March, won the gold with a perfect 80m effort to break the KIUG record (OR 76.64m) on Tuesday.

Kalinga Institute’s Vikrant’s personal best, the 81.82m that came in the North-East varsities championship in Bhubaneswar in December, was better than Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra varsities National record (81.04m) which came in 2015.

Vikrant is the sixth Indian to touch or cross 80m this year in the list which is headed by World No. 1 Neeraj Chopra with his 88.67m in the Doha Diamond League earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Federation Cup champion Tanya Chaudhary — the Indian leader in the event with her 62.62m at the Chennai varsities Nationals — took the women’s hammer throw gold with 60.61m.

In the absence of Madras University’s R. Arul and Maharshi Dayanand’s Himanshi Malik, who clocked the fifth fastest time by an Asian this year with her 52.99s at the Chennai varsities Nationals, Nitin Kumar (47.39s) and Nidhi Yogendra Singh (55.02s) took the men’s and women’s 400m golds.

Gurindervir Singh (10.57s) and Avantika Santosh (11.68s, third-best Indian this year) emerged as the fastest male and female athletes of the meet by winning the 100m on Monday.