Y. Bala Devi after winning the women’s 20 km walk on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Jamshedpur: Sudha Singh of Railways set a national record in women’s 3000m steeplechase on the penultimate day of the 47th National Open Athletics Championship at the JRD Tata Sports Complex Thursday.

Eclipsing the N. Shanthi’s mark (10:44.65 seconds) created in Bangalore (July 2005), the 21-year-old clocked 10:18.76 en route to the gold medal.

A ticket collector with the Central Railways in Mumbai, Sudha was surprised by her performance as she was hoping to finish within a timing of 10:35.

“I had plans to improve upon my earlier performance of 10:52 clocked in the recently concluded Inter-Railways meet in Bhubaneshwar, but an effort like this I had never thought of,” Sudha, who hails from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, said. Teammates Kiran Tiwari (10:50.12) and Kamlesh Bhagal (11:03.90) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

Services’ Om Prakash claimed the men’s 3000m steeplechase gold (8:48.06). Arun D’Souza of Railways finished second (8:49.24) while Elam Singh of Services (8:52.15) settled for the bronze medal.

Y. Bala Devi earned Railways another gold in women’s 20km walk. In the first event of the day, the Manipuri raced ahead of teammate Manjusha CN, timing 1::47:08.04. Manjusha bagged silver (1::48:44.46) while L. Sharda Devi of Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB) picked the bronze medal.

Manpreet Kaur of Railways had a throw of 13.62m to bag the women’s shot put gold. The 17-year-old Patiala lass, who joined the Railways earlier this month, incidentally, bettered her Senior Federation Cup performance (14.49).

Railways made a clean sweep in the women’s pole vault with V.S. Surekha fetching the gold (3.75 m), Chetna Solanki the silver (3.60m) and R. Jisha the bronze medal (3.40 m).

The men’s long jump saw Shiv Shankar Yadav of Railways claim the top slot with a 7.73m effort. Punjab’s Shamsher Pratap Singh picked the silver (7.42m) while PSCB’s Rajiv Kumar settled for the bronze medal.

Delhi’s Harpreet secured gold in the men’s discus throw with a hurl of 52.24m even as Bihar opened its account through Krishna Kumar Sharma, who managed 52.06m. Sukhbir Singh of PSCB took the bronze with a 51.84 m effort.

Jora Singh of Haryana finished on the top in the men’s decathlon by garnering 6960 points. Ramniwas of Railways finished second (6906) and Dayaram of Services third (6770).

Finals of 15 events have been lined up for the concluding day Friday.