Four National Records set at Indian Grand Prix (IGP) 4

The Indian Grand Prix 4 or IGP 4 is the fourth edition of the event being conducted by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to give Indian athletes an opportunity to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. The event is being held at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

Many Indian athletes could not participate in the Tokyo qualification event held in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Hence AFI decided to hold the fourth Indian Grand Prix this year. The first three IGP were held between February and March 2021.

The IGP4 will have the following events: 400m, 1500m, long jump, triple jump, shot put, javelin throw, and 400m hurdles for men and 100m, 200m, 400m, 1500m, 5000m, discus throw, javelin throw and 4x100m relay for women. Notable absentees from the event are sprinter Muhammad Anas, ace discus thrower Seema Antil and Asian gold medalist Jinson Johnson.

But there are some prominent athletes in action at IGP 4 as well. They are Dutee Chand, Hima Das and Tajinderpal Singh Toor. Day 2 of IGP 4 witnessed several galant efforts and four national records being set in due process. Here is a look at the records that were set and the athletes who achieved those distinctions.

The records were set in the following events: men's shot put, women's 100m, women's discus throw and women's 4x100m relay.

Dutee Chand for the women's relay team, shot putter Tejinderpal Singh Toor and discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur were the stars of the show.

Dutee Chand could have missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo games by a whisker but she still has a chance to represent India in the women's 100m. But Tejinderpal Singh Toor is already on his way to the Olympic games.

National Record in Indian Women's 4x100m relay

Duttee Chand (Credits: Kiren Rijiju Office/Twitter)

The Indian sprint quartet comprising of Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Dhanalaxmi and Archana Suseedran created a new national record at IGP 4 in the women's 4x100m relay when they clocked 43.37 seconds.

Although they were unable to qualify directly for the Olympics even after setting the national record, the quartet were definitely given a boost in their bid to improve further.

The Olympic qualifying mark is 43.05 seconds and the team will now believe they have a genuine chance of making it to Tokyo. The upcoming inter-state meet would be the final chance for this team to touch the 43.05 seconds mark and qualify for the Olympics.

Interestingly, Dutee Chand was also a part of the quartet which held the previous national record.

In 2016, the 4x100m women relay team comprising Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, HM Jyoti and Merlin Joseph had clocked 44.03s at at the IAAF World Challenge in Beijing. Although the team had finished fourth in the race, a new national record was created. That team had then broken the the 18-year-old record of 44.43s created by the quartet of Saraswati Dey, Rachita Mistry, EB Shyla and PT Usha.

National Record in women's 100m

Duttee Chand in action (Credits: Duttee Chand/Instagram)

India's fastest woman, Dutee Chand, featured in another national record as she ran 100m in 11.17 seconds, bettering her own record of 11.22 seconds by 0.05 seconds. She had created the previous record in Ranchi in 2019.

At the 59th National Open Olympics Championships in Ranchi, Dutee Chand had clocked 11.22 seconds on her way to the gold medal. On that occasion she had surpassed her timing of 11.26 seconds which she had set at the Asian Championships in April 2019.

Although a new national record was created, it was not enough to ensure Dutee Chand a place in Tokyo Olympics 2020 as the qualification mark for the event stands at 11.15 seconds.

Other than holding the national record, Dutee Chand created history when she became the first Indian to clinch gold in the women's 100m at a global event. She is also only the fifth Indian to participate in the women's 100m at Olympics when she represented India at the Rio Olympics 2016.

National record in women's discus throw

Kamalpreet Kaur standing in front of the scoreboard showing new national record (Credits: Athletics Federation of India/Twitter)

Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur also etched her name in the record books as she threw the disc at a distance of 66.59m mark thus creating a national record for women.

With that throw, she had bettered her own previous best of 65.06m which was recorded at the Federation Cup back in March.The throw at the Federation Cup had helped her to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

Another record went Kamalpreet Kaur's way as she became the first woman in the country to breach the 65m mark. To make sense of how good her throw was, the 66.59m distance would have earned Kaur a bronze at the Rio Olympics 2016.

Interestingly, 22-year-old was once passionate about cricket and wants to become a professional cricket player at some point and hopes to do well in that sport as well.

National Record in men's shot put

Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Credits: Kiren Rijiju/Twitter)

Shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor created a new national record as his first throw crossed the 21.49m mark. With that throw, Tajinderpal Singh Toor confirmed his participation in Tokyo Olympics 2020. It was the first time that Tajinderpal Singh Toor had crossed the 21m mark in his career. He was always expected to do well at IGP4 as he had started his season well with a throw of 20.58m at the Federation Cup in March.

The throw was special as it not only created a new national record but also a new Asian record. Abdel Mahmood of Bahrain held the previous Asian record with a throw of 21.15m

Going forward, Tajinderpal Singh Toor is confident of breaching the 22m mark. He is following American world record holder Ryan Crouser closely.

Last week Ryan Crouser created a new world record with the throw of 23.37m. The Indian will have to battle hard at the Olympics as this year 13 athletes have thrown better than Tajinderpal Singh Toor's throw of 21.49m.