After serving four-year doping ban, Manpreet Kaur smashes own shot put national record

CHENNAI: Having returned to competition last year after serving a doping ban of four years, Manpreet Kaur smashed her own national record to steal the limelight on the second day of National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here on Saturday. Star sprinter Hima Das and her Assam team-mate Amlan Borgohain won the women's and men's 100m dash gold respectively by the thinnest of margins as they became the fastest woman and man of the championships.

The 31-year-old Kaur, who was handed a four-year ban from July 2017 after testing positive on four occasions that year, hurled the iron ball to a distance of 18.06m in her fourth attempt. She became the first Indian woman to cross 18m in shot put. Kaur's earlier national record was 17.96m set in 2015. She has breached the Athletics Federation of India's qualifying standard of 17.76m for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. Kaur had recorded a massive 18.86m performance in 2017 but that was erased from the record books after the dope flunk. The gold she won in the 2017 Asian Championships was also stripped off. She had returned to action in September last year with a third-place finish in the National Open Championships. Kiran Baliyan of Uttar Pradesh was a distant second with 16.85m while Maharashtra's Abha Khatuawas third with 16.69m. Hima beat national record holder Dutee Chand, clocking 11.43 seconds, her personal best over the distance. Dutee, representing Odisha, was one-hundredth of a second behind Hima with 11.44s. Veteran Srabani Nanda, also of Odisha, was third with a time of 11.53s. Dutee's national record stands at 11.17s. The qualifying standard set by Athletics Federation of India for the Commonwealth Games is 11.31s. "This is my best moment. It's special