Seema Antil staved off the challenge from arch-rival Krishna Poonia to defend her title in the women's discus throw on day three of the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships in Kolkata on Saturday.

Seema began with a bang and cleared 58.09m with her first effort, which proved enough for a victory, ahead of Poonia who hurled it 57.02m to finish second.

Harwant Kaur of Punjab Police took the third place with a modest throw of 55.38m.

In the women's 100m hurdles, national record holder Anuradha Biswal (14.01s) faced stiff challenge from Poonam Bojwana (14.13s) before finishing first in the 100m hurdles.

Despite winning the event, it was a subdued performance by the Orissa athlete who was expecting to go sub-14.

Women's 400m peaked to a dramatic climax as the lead changed thrice.

Mandeep Kaur (53.86s) led till 250m but at the end of the curve, Iyleen Samantha (53.47s) overtook her. Iyleen, however, could not maintain her momentum and eventually it was Chitra Soman (53.43s) who finished first.

It was Chitra's first victory after a long time as Pinki Pramanik (2006) and Satti Geetha (2005) dominated the domestic championship titles in recent past.

In men's high hurdles, BSF's Naunidh Singh finished first clocking a personal best of 14.29s, ahead of National Games champion P Muthusamy (14.38s) of Tamil Nadu.

Naunidh, however, failed in his bid to become the first Indian member of the sub-14 club. Rohit Hawal of Jharkhand took third place timing 14.52s.

Joseph Abraham (CRPF) beat Army's Sarish Paul in men 400m final with a timing of 46.89s. Sarish clocked 47.37s while Vinay Chaudhary logged 47.63s to finish third.

In men's javelin throw, Anil Kumar, overcoming an ankle injury, defended his title with a distance of 73.61m, ahead of Sunil Goswami (72.72m) and Om Narayan (71.08m).