Nirbhay Choudhary, Haqikat Grewal smash hammer throw records at Indian Open U23 meet

Jaipur: Nirbhay Choudhary of Delhi and Haqikat Grewal of Punjab stole the spotlight by setting meet records in the men’s and women’s hammer throw events on the concluding day of the Sixth Indian Open U23 Athletics Competition 2026 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Sunday.

The three-day competition also witnessed new meet records in the men’s 400m hurdles and 10,000m races.

Choudhary’s best throw of 66.32m surpassed the previous meet record of 64.75m set by Rajasthan’s Nitesh Poonia in 2022. Uttar Pradesh’s Mohammad Shahban also bettered the old mark with a throw of 65.27m to claim silver.

The women’s hammer throw witnessed a close contest, with Grewal taking the lead with her second attempt before producing a meet-record throw of 55.46m in her final effort. The previous record of 54.42m belonged to Tanya Chaudhary. Rajasthan’s Soniya finished second with a best throw of 52.16m.

In the men’s 10,000m, all three medallists bettered the previous meet record of 29:44.64, set by Puneet Yadav in 2022. Maharashtra’s Gaurav Bhaskar clinched gold in 29:34.52.

West Bengal’s Karna Bag completed the record-breaking show by winning the men’s 400m hurdles in 50.27 seconds, narrowly improving on the previous meet record of 50.29 seconds set by Kerala’s Arjun Pradeep in 2025.

RESULTS (Day 3)

Men

200m: Yuvraj E (Tamil Nadu) 21.01 seconds, Dondapati M (Odisha) 21.04 seconds, Nayan Shah (Maharashtra) 21.11 seconds.

800m: Akashdeep Singh (Punjab) 1:50.10 seconds, Shyam Milan Bind (Uttar Pradesh) 1:50.62 seconds, Naresh Gurjar (Air Force) 1:51.10 seconds.

10,000m: Gaurav Bhaskar (Maharashtra) 29:34.52 (meet record), Satyam (Uttar Pradesh) 29:36.45, Mohit Choudhary (ONGC) 29:37.19.

400m hurdles: Karna Bag (West Bengal) 50.27 seconds (meet record), Aryan Prajwal (JSW) 50.28 seconds, Vignesh B (Navy) 51.33 seconds.

3000m steeplechase: Ranvir Kumar (Gujarat) 8:59.46, Ritesh Kumar (Haryana) 9:00.34, MD Nooruddin (Delhi) 9:00.42.

Triple jump: Yuvraj K (Tamil Nadu) 15.64m, Pradeep Kumar (NCOE Bengaluru) 15.51m, Dablu Roy (BSF) 15.49m.

Hammer throw: Nirbhay Choudhary (Delhi) 66.32m (meet record), Mohammad Shahban (Uttar Pradesh) 65.27m, Prateek (Haryana) 59.20m.

Javelin throw: Shashank Patil (Karnataka) 76.16m, Aditya (Haryana) 75.48m, Manish (Haryana) 74.50m.

High jump: Aaditya Raguvanshi (Madhya Pradesh) 2.10m, Jomon Joy (Kerala) 2.10m, Shyam Sunder (Air Force) 2.10m.

21km half marathon race walk: Nitin Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) 1:29:51.00, Sachin Garhwal (Rajasthan) 1:30:04.00, Tushar Panwar (Uttarakhand) 1:30:19.00.

Women

200m: Sonika (Haryana) 23.97 seconds, Samriti Jamwal (Himachal Pradesh) 23.98 seconds, Sakshi Champalal (Gujarat) 24.11 seconds.

800m: Prateeksha Yadav (IOCL) 2:06.92 seconds, Laxmipriya Kisan (Odisha) 2:08.34 seconds, Harshika (Delhi) 2:08.59 seconds.

400m hurdles; Priyanka M (Karnataka) 1:00.25 seconds, Ashwini R (Tamil Nadu) 1:00.59 seconds, Apurva Anand Naik (Karnataka) 1:00.92 seconds.

3000m steeplechase: Prachi Devkar (IOCL) 10:26.21, Susmita Tigga (Odisha) 10:36.08, Nikita (IOCL) 10:45.10.

Triple jump: Marymukta Soreng (Odisha) 12.57m, Varshitha C (Karnataka) 12.50m, Monika (Haryana) 12.36m.

Hammer throw: Haqikat Grewal (Punjab) 55.46m (meet record), Soniya (Rajasthan) 52.16m, Shivani Sharma (Haryana) 49.68m.

Javelin throw: Deepika (JSW) 51.43m, Poonam (JSW) 50.45m, Jyoti (Haryana) 49.50m.

Heptathlon: Bidisha Kundu (West Bengal) 5260 points, Tanishka Sharma (Delhi) 4800 points, Magudeeshwari S (Tamil Nadu) 4720 points.

Tags : Nirbhay Choudhary, Haqikat Grewal, Athletics, Jaipur, Mohammed Shahban