Mangaluru, Jan 15: Mubassina Muhammed, who moved to the Anju Bobby Academy in Bengaluru five months ago, won the women’s long jump gold comfortably in the 85th all-India inter-university athletics championships with a 6.15m effort here.
The 19-year-old from Lakshwadeep, daughter of a coconut tree climber, has improved her long jump by 15cm to 6.36m after coming under coach Robert Bobby George and that has given her new confidence.
She also won the under-23 and under-20 Nationals last October.
“I came here thinking I would break A. Sherin’s 6.32m meet record here but I had a foul,” said Mubassina who was representing SRM University.
While Mubassina was attempting to break the record, three young men – Kuldeep Yadav, S. Kavinraja, Ram Ratan – easily soared over the pole vault meet record (5.00m) with all of them clearing 5.10m.
Gwalior ITM University’s Kuldeep Yadav, who cleared that height in his first try, took the gold while Periyar University’s S. Kavinraja got the silver.
There was a big upset too as GNDU’s Dev Kumar Meena, the national record holder with 5.40m, failed to clear 5.10 in all his three attempts. However, Dev bettered the meet record with his opening height of 5.01m, which fetched him the fourth place.(PTI)
