40th Open National Athletic
Championships of India
Ram. Murali Krishnan
11 October 2000 – Calcutta, India - Two national records in relatively new events were the highlights of the 40th Open National Athletic Championships of India. The three-day event at Salt Lake Stadium concluded here on Wednesday.
Hardeep Kaur from Life Insurance Corporation of India outclassed her arch rival and former national record holder K. Jabeshwari Devi by throwing the ball and chain 58.95m to set a new national record in the women's hammer throw.
Karamjit Kaur, representing Indian Police, improved her national pole vault record of 2.82m by vaulting a new high of 3.10m. Karamjit, a former junior and senior national gymnastic champion, is optimistic about the development of this event in Asia. In fact a number of young talents from China and former soviet republics (now members of the Asian AAA) are showing tremendous improvement. Ironically the second placed Indubala from Manipur managed only 2.20m at Calcutta!
The biggest upsets of the meet were from throwers Shakti Singh and Neelam Jaswant Singh.
Shakti, holder of the Asian best 20.60m in the men's shot put, suffered a "double defeat" as he lost both the shot put and discus throw events.
Neelam Jaswant Singh's winning streak ended on a sore note when she could not match her personal best on this occasion and the little known Seema Antil took the women's discus throw title in all her glory.
