Amarjeet Singh (IND) (© Ram. Murali Krishnan)
New Delhi, IndiaThe twelfth edition of the Federation Cup ended here last night. The four day meet (28 Feb – 3 Mar) was held at the magnificent Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in the Indian capital and dubbed as the ‘Final Trials’ for the national team to Commonwealth Games at Melbourne.
New AFI President
When the Executive Committee of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) met on the morning of 28 February, just before the opening of the above meet, Suresh Kalmadi informed the members that his resignation as President in the national body stands. Kalmadi, an IAAF Council member and President of the Asian Athletics Association has his “hands full” with several other responsibilities to look after. Unable to persuade their President from leaving, the AFI nominated Mr. Umrao Singh as an interim President for the next six months.
The four days of competition...
The opening day of the Cup saw Kerala’s Anisha K. Vijayan, who represents her employers CRPF register a 13.57m Triple JUmp, which was just 10cm shy of the national mark held by Anju Bobby George.
Tamil Nadu’s V.S. Surekha raised the women’s Pole Vault meet record to 3.85m but fails to improve her personal best and national record of 3.90m set at the same venue less than two weeks ago.
There were several good performances set on the second day with Amarjeet Singh triple jumping 16.58m – the best by an Indian on the home soil. The other athlete who captured everyone’s eye on Wednesday was 400m hurdler Joseph Abraham. Pushed by former national record holder Gurpreet Singh, he went on to clock 50.50, just seven-hundredths of a second off the national record. Gurpreet was timed in 50.81 for the silver.
Ghamanda Ram took a solo 800m victory in 1:47.74 while suffering from a fever. In the women’s race, Pinki Pramanik continued her winning streak with a modest time of 2:05.05.
On the third day hurdler Anuradha Biswal won the women’s 100m Hurdles in 13.48, improving her meet mark but missing the national record 13.38 she set here four years ago. But the day’s honour went to decathlete Jora Singh who logged on 7502, a new national mark.
Anil Kumar took an easy win over 100m on the final day in 10.44 while the second placed Senthil Murugan of Tamil Nadu was way back (10.81).
Bhupinder Singh won the men’s 400m (46.14).
Pritam Bind continued his winning streak at the nationals in the men’s 1500m (3:47.13) while O.P. Jaisha took the women’s race in 4:15.07.
Predictably Anju Bobby George won her first outdoor title of the year with a modest 6.42m in women’s long jump. Ranked fourth in the World, she is participating in the World Indoors in Moscow, Russia, next weekend.
Sushmita Singha Roy, the young Bengali athlete, won the Heptathlon with a personal best 5872 points on the final day, beating her older team-mate Soma Biswas who was just 15 points, while and national record-holder J.J. Shobha. settled for the bronze in 5720.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
