All India Police meet: Javelin thrower Sachin Yadav impresses with 84.21m

The throw placed Yadav sixth in the list of India’s all-time best javelin throwers. Twice Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra (89.94m) heads the list, followed by Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Jena (87.54m), Shivpal Singh (86.23m), Davinder Kang (84.57m) and DP Manu (84.35m).

Yadav, representing Uttar Pradesh Police, set a meet record and achieved a personal best. The earlier record belonged to Satbir Singh of Punjab Police, who threw 79.68m in 1994. He improved on the meet record twice, first throwing 83.43m and then following it up with 84.21m. He fouled his other four attempts. Arun Baby of Kerala came a distant second (76.34m) and Manjinder Singh of CRPF finished third (74.68m).

The 24-year-old Yadav has been in good form this year. He won silver at the National Open meet in Bengaluru with a throw of 79.80m, behind gold medallist Vikrant Malik’s 80.02m. This, after Yadav had registered 80.04m in qualification. At the Indian Grand Prix-3 in Bengaluru, he achieved a distance of 82.69m. Yadav first touched the 80m mark in 2023 (80.27m) at a meet in Ranchi.

Yadav said he is looking to qualify for the world athletics championships in Japan next year. The entry standard is 85.50m. He can also look to qualify through world rankings.

Three more meet records were broken at the meet on Wednesday.

In 5,000m, Prince Kumar from Uttar Pradesh Police smashed a 46-year-old mark. His winning effort of 13:58.56secs surpassed the previous best of 14:08.08secs, set in 1978 by the late distance running legend Hari Chand representing CRPF.

In high jump, Athira Somaraj of Kerala Police stole the show clearing 1.77m, breaking the old record of 1.76m of AK Deepa (CRPF) set in 1999.

Rimpi Burgohain of Assam Rifles set a new record in women’s long jump (6.34m), going past the 6.23m achieved by Mareena George of Kerala Police in 2023.