S. Shanthi, double gold medallist and new NR in women's 3000m steeplechase (© Krishnan)
Bangalore, IndiaThe southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu once again proved its mettle by annexed the overall championship in the national senior inter-state championships sponsored by MetLife Insurance.
Aided by its strong force of female athletes, the TN athletes went all out to prove that they are the “champion of champions” in the four-day national meet which concluded at Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday (6 July).
Double gold and national record
The winning state’s S. Shanthi made it with a golden double by winning the women’s 800m and 3000m Steeplechase. The humble athlete overcome a stiff challenge to rewrite the only national mark of the meet in steeplechase in 10:44.65 - incidentally the second best in the Asian continent this season.
The other athletes to secure the ‘double’ were middle distance runner Ghamanda Ram (Rajasthan) and multi-event specialist Sushmita Singha Roy (West Bengal).
Running a tactical race with Kerala’s ace athlete P.S. Primesh, Ghamanda Ram won the 800m in the last day of the meet in 1:47.99, which was incidentally his personal best and a new meet mark. The above performance put him in to 6th place in the Indian all-time rankings and 13th in the current Asian lists.
Coached by Kundal Roy at the SAI Centre in Kolkata, the young and energetic Sushmita Singha Roy cash-in the opportunity of her senior athletes’ absence in Heptathlon to take the national title. Earlier she inflicted a rare defeat on the South Asian Games champion Sangeetha Mohan in the High Jump.
The state of Andhra Pradesh has received its share of accolades through its star athletes Patlavath Shankar and Sathi Geetha, both adjudged as best athletes of the meet for their performances in the men’s 400m Hurdles and women’s 400m respectively.
Having returned with a PB 52.04 from the recently concluded Asian GP series, Geetha’s attempt to dip below 52 secs was foiled by gusty winds on the third
day of the competition.
The same was the case with Pole vaulter Gajanan Upadhyaya of Uttar Pradesh. The event could not be completed on Tuesday, the third day of competition following heavy rain on the evening session and hence postponed to the final day. However, on Wednesday morning the wind hampered the efforts of the vaulters to achieve higher performances. Gajanan hence settled with a new meet height of 4.95m.
Running against the head-wind of 1.3 m/s, Anil Kumar clocked a modest 21 secs to win the men’s 200m.
George competes on home soil
The one event which everyone look forward with some anticipation was the women’s long jump which was held on the third day of the championship (5 July). The reason being the World championship bronze medallist Anju Bobby George’s participation on the home soil after a gap of 14 months. A battery of lensemen backed by the country’s leading sports reporters present on the stadium together with a sizeable crowd of spectators. Here again an intermittent rain interrupted the jumpers. To add further a knee injury during a warm-up complicated the show to George. She however won the event with a not-so-impressive 6.09m.
“I can’t blame the rain, only the swelling due to knee injury prevented my attempts to go for better distances” admitted a disappointed George after the event. “I am sure that the pain will be taken care of in a week’s time, before I leave the country to participate in London super Grand Prix and Stockholm”
she declared with a smile.
Kerala took the men’s team championship from defending champions Punjab. The 4x400m relay, final event of the meet served as a decider.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Results:
Men:
100m (4) [-1.6]: 1. Sandeep Sarkaria (Delhi) 10.45; 2.
H. Jayachandran(Tamil Nadu) 10.47; 3. Vilas Neelagund (Karnataka) 10.47;
200m (6) [-1.3]: 1. Anil Kumar (Kerala) 21.00; 2.
Vilas Neelagund (Karnataka) 21.08; 3. A. Aravind (Tamil Nadu) 21.11;
400m (5): 1. Satbir Singh (Haryana) 46.49; 2.
Patlavath Shankar (Andhra Pradesh) 46.79; 3. Anil Kumar Rohil (Delhi) 47.19;
800m (6): 1. Ghamanda Ram (Rajasthan) 1:47.99 (NMR); 2. P.S. Primesh (Kerala) 1:51.22; 3. J.M. Mathew (Karnataka) 1:52.88;
1500m (3): 1. Ghamanda Ram (Rajasthan) 3:49.12; 2.
Pritam Kumar Bind (Uttaranchal) 3:52.73; 3. Sunil Kumar Singh (Haryana) 3:56.31;
5000m (6): 1. Sunilkumar Singh (Haryana) 14:40.6; 2.
Kuldip Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 14:42.6; 3. Sitaram (Maharashtra) 14:43.8;
10,000m (3): 1. Kuldip Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 31:07.92; 2. R.B. Subba (Delhi) 31:23.98; 3. Surender Singh (Maharashtra) 31:31.23;
3000m SC (4): 1. Arun D'Souza (Andhra Pradesh) 9:03.68; 2. Bhagwan Giri (Uttar Pradesh) 9:10.45; 3.Mahesh Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) 9:25.32;
110m Hurdles (5) [+0.5]: 1. Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) 14.37; 2. Krishna Mohan (Andhra Pradesh) 14.43; 3. Prince Mathew (Kerala) 14.56;
400m Hurdles (6): 1. Patlavath Shankar (Andhra
Pradesh) 50.97; 2. Joseph Abraham (Kerala) 51.81; 3. Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) 52.39;
High Jump (5): 1. Benedict Starli (Tamil Nadu) 2.11; 2. K.R. Roshan (Kerala) 2.08; 3. S. Sreenath (Karnataka) 2.08;
Pole Vault (6): 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (Uttar Pradesh) 4.95; 2. R. Ranjith Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 4.80; 3. V.V. Geesh Kumar (Kerala) 4.70;
Long Jump (4): 1. Shamsher Singh (Rajasthan) 7.66/+0.2; 2. Rajesh Babu (Delhi) 7.60/-0.7; 3. Wayne Peppin (Tamil Nadu) 7.29/-0.7;
Triple Jump (6): 1. Maheswary Renjith (Kerala) 15.69/+2.9; 2. Bhupinder Singh (Punjab) 15.62/+3.0; 3. K.C. Saintison (Kerala) 15.62/+0.3;
Shot Put (4): 1. Shakti Singh (Haryana) 18.80; 2. P.B.
Giri (Madhya Pradesh) 18.15; 3. Jaivir Singh (Haryana) 17.94;
Discus Throw (6): 1. Amandeep Singh (Punjab) 53.30; 2.
Harpreet Singh (Delhi) 52.22; 3. Amritpal Singh (Punjab) 52.16;
Hammer Throw (5): 1. Harpal Singh (Punjab) 64.66; 2.
Madhu Kumar (Haryana) 62.54; 3. Pargat Singh (Punjab) 59.64;
Javelin Throw (6): 1. Kashinath Naik (Maharashtra) 73.00; 2. Om Narain (Haryana) 72.44; 3. Gurkirat Singh (Punjab) 71.95;
Decathlon (5): 1. Kulwinder Singh (Punjab) 6943; 2.
Jora Singh (Haryana) 6896; 3. Mandeep Kumar (Andhra Pradesh) 6858;
20 KM Walk (5): 1. Gurdev Singh (Punjab) 64.66m; 2.
P.S. Jalan (Kerala) 1::30:45; 3. Gurmit Singh (Punjab) 1::32:06;
4x100m (5): 1. Karnataka (Parasuram, Parameshwar, Vilas Neelgund, Md. Mudassir) 40.61; 2. Kerala (Jiby Peter, K.K. Biju, V.V. Girish, Anil Kumar) 40.95; 3. Tamil Nadu (G. Manickavasagam, A. Aravind, P. Muthusamy, H. Jayachandran) 41.65;
4x400m (6): 1. Kerala (Aboo Backer, P.S. Sreejith, Sunil Joseph, P.S. Primesh) 3:11.77; 2. Andhra Pradesh (Patlavath Shankar, Srinivas Rao, Arshad Hussain, S. Srinivas) 3:11.81; 3. Haryana (Satpal Singh, Satbir Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Sunil Kumar) 3:12.77;
Women:
100m (4) [-0.7]: 1. K.M. Greeshma (Kerala) 11.94; 2.
G.D. Gowramma (Karnataka) 11.97; 3. Deephi Jose (Kerala) 12.02;
200m (6) [-2.3]: 1. Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Punjab) 23.72; 2. Saradha Narayanan (Tamil Nadu) 24.93; 3. Ranjita Roy (West Bengal) 25.08;
400m (5): 1. Sathi Geetha (Andhra Pradesh) 52.49; 2.
Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Punjab) 53.02; 3. Manjit Kaur (Punjab) 53.92;
800m (6): 1. S. Shanthi (Tamil Nadu) 2:07.76; 2. Sathi Geetha (Andhra Pradesh) 2:08.06; 3. Sinimol Paulose (Jharkand) 2:08.48;
1500m (3): 1. Sunita Rani (Punjab) 4:25.13; 2. S.
Shanthi (Tamil Nadu) 4:31.08; 3. O.P. Jaisha (Kerala) 4:31.70;
5000m (6): O.P. Jaisha (Kerala) 17:53.97; 2. Pampa Chanda (West Bengal) 18:03.35; 3. Preeja Sreedharan
(Kerala) 18:12.96;
10,000m (3): 1. L. Aruna Devi (West Bengal) 36:55.53; 2. Pampa Chanda (West Bengal) 38:22.99; 3. Preethi L Rao (Karnataka) 38:47.37;
3000m SC (4): 1. S. Shanthi (Tamil Nadu) 10:44.65 (National Record); 2. B.L. Bharathi (Karnataka) 11:38.27; 3. A. Papathi (Tamil Nadu) 12:47.80;
100m Hurdles (5) [+1.0]: 1. K.N. Priya (Tamil Nadu) 13.72; 2. Anuradha Biswal (Orissa) 13.84; 3. Simi Sebastian (Kerala) 14.28;
400m Hurdles (6): 1. Chitra K. Soman (Jharkand) 59.62; 2. Pooja Jakhar (Delhi) 1:00.51; 3. Vijayalakshmi (Karnataka) 1:00.54;
High Jump (4): 1. Sushmita Singha Roy (West Bengal) 1.73; 2. M. Sangeetha (Tamil Nadu) 1.70; 3. D. Karpuramala (Tamil Nadu) 1.65;
Pole Vault (3): 1. Chetna Solanki (Uttar Pradesh) 3.50; 2. V.S. Sureka (Tamil Nadu) 3.50; 3. Gitanjali Bora (Assam) 3.30;
Long Jump (5): 1. Anju B George (Tamil Nadu) 6.09/+0.8; 2. K. Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 5.86/+0.4; 3. Noosheen Rajendran (Tamil Nadu) 5.85/+2.1;
Triple Jump (6): K. Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 12.83/-0.9; 2. V.S. Libiya (Kerala) 12.57/+1.6; 3. Tincy Philip (Kerala) 12.32/nwi;
Shot Put (3): 1. Chaitali Paul (West Bengal) 14.34; 2.
Archana Mondal (West Bengal) 13.27; 3. A. Anitcham (Tamil Nadu) 12.63;
Discus Throw (6): 1. Neelam J. Singh (Haryana) 57.52; 2. Krishna Punia (Rajasthan) 55.96; 3. Archana Mondal (West Bengal) 42.50;
Hammer Throw (3): 1. Usma Daryan (Uttar Pradesh) 55.73; 2. Rajwinder Kaur Jr. (Punjab) 54.75; 3. Ritu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 53.39;
Javelin Throw (4): 1. Suman Devi (Uttar Pradesh) 51.73; 2. Monisha Mondal (West Bengal) 50.27; 3. M.K.Prajisha (Kerala) 49.61;
Heptathlon (6): 1. Sushmita Singha Roy (West Bengal) 5287; 2. Rose Mary Antony (Kerala) 4147; 3. V. Leelavathi (Tamil Nadu) 4123;
20 KM Walk (4): 1. Y. Bala Devi (West Bengal) 1::44:37(NMR); 2. Amandeep Kaur (Punjab) 1::45:43; 3. L. Deepmala Devi (Manipur) 1::47:14;
4x100m (5): 1. Kerala (V.D. Shijila, K.M. Greeshma, Sreelekha, Simi Sebastian) 47.56; 2. Tamil Nadu (Saradha Narayanan, K. Muthulakshmi, R. Elavarasi, K.N. Priya) 47.97; 3. Karnataka (G.D. Gowramma, H.M. Jyothi, Poonam Belliappa, Yamini D Rao) 48.26;
4x400m (6): 1. Tamil Nadu (C. Bhuvaneswari, S.
Shanthi, Roselin Arokya Mary, Anbu Vimala) 3:47.77; 2.
Andhra Pradesh (Iyleen Samantha, K. Sowjanya, B.
Venkatalakshmi, K. Mrudula) 3:51.65; 3. West Bengal (Sabina Khatun, Sutapa Das, Sima Majumdar, Dolly Sarkar) 3:51.82
