National Athletics: Second gold for Surender

Long distance runner Surender Singh bagged his second gold of the event when he clocked 29:19.40s to win the men's 10,000m event at the 49th Open National Athletics championships in Bhopal on Friday.

Earlier, Surender won the 5000m gold on Day 1 of the competition.

The day witnessed a close contest between Railways and Services.

Surender, from the Services team, was followed by Sandeep of Railways (30:03.66s) and team-mate BC Tilak (30:05.14s).

C Hamza of Services clocked 3:42.87s to take home the gold medal in the 1500m event. He was closely followed by team-mates E Benazer (3:48.02) and Rajan KK (3:48.94), in the second and third spot respectively.

It was  a cleansweep for Railways in the women's 1500m event, as Sushma Devi clinched gold by clocking 4:22.86s, followed by Bindu SR 4:24.08 and Priyanka Patel 4:25.70s.

Kavita Raut came up trumps in the 10,000m women's event, after clocking 33:57.40s. Her arch rival Preeti L Rao came in a distant second with a timing of 33:57.40s. Railways' Lalita Babar (37:20.01s) took home the bronze.

After four days of competition, Railways have taken their medal tally to 57 (22G, 21S, 14B). Services are in the second spot with a total of 18 medals with six gold, six silvers and six bronze. Kerala are placed third with four golds.