In Ranchi, India, rising star Samardeep Gill grabbed the gold medal in the men’s shot put at the National Open Athletics Championships 2025. The 24-year-old athlete stunned fans by edging out two-time Asian Games champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor in a nail-biting finish on Monday at Birsa Munda Stadium.
Gill nailed his best throw of 19.79 meters on his final attempt, just beating Toor’s impressive 19.32-meter effort for silver. Ravi Kumar took bronze with 18.23 meters. This victory marks Gill’s third straight win over Toor, the former Asian record holder and Olympian who holds India’s national record of 21.77 meters from 2023.
Just last month at the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai, Gill set a personal best of 19.82 meters to claim gold, while Toor settled for silver at 19.41 meters. Back in April at the Federation Cup in Kochi, Gill led with 19.34 meters to Toor’s 18.77 meters. Before these upsets, Toor had dominated their head-to-head matchups 8-0.
The championships, organized by the Athletics Federation of India, featured 10 exciting finals on Day 3. In the men’s 20km race walk, Nitin Gupta crossed the line first in 1:24:22.98, ahead of Paramjeet Bisht (1:25:10.43) and Amanjot Singh (1:26:27.14). Munita Prajapati powered to gold in the women’s 20km race walk with a time of 1:36:14.34, followed by Kamla (1:37:42.12) and Sejal Anil Singh (1:38:32.88).
Baranica Elangovan cleared 4.10 meters to win the women’s pole vault, topping Mariya Jaison (4.05 meters) and Krishna Rachan (3.90 meters). Other highlights included Damneet Singh’s 68.71-meter hammer throw for men’s gold, Rohit’s 2.18-meter high jump shared with Aadarsh Ram, and Railway Sports’ speedy 45.09-second win in the women’s 4x100m relay.
In the men’s 4x100m relay, Railway Sports H clocked 39.44 seconds for victory over SSCB I (39.81 seconds) and Odisha F (39.89 seconds). Deepika threw 54.86 meters to take women’s javelin gold, and Mohd Sazid leaped 7.78 meters for the men’s long jump title.
The 64th edition of this major outdoor track and field event wraps up Tuesday, showcasing India’s top athletics talent.
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