Indian Open Championships report

New Delhi, IndiaSoundararajan Shanthi on Sunday (8 Oct) was at her best clocking a career best 2:02.21 for the top-spot and declared “best athlete” among the women competing at the 46th Open National Athletics Championships held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (4 - 8 Oct).

Arch-rival Pinki Pramanik finished second at 2:03.37 and the bronze went to Sinimol Paulose in 2:04.07.

Shanti, who had finished in third place in the 1500m, is an athlete blessed with potent and natural stamina.  A gold medalist in 800m at the inaugural Asian Indoor Games at Pattaya last November, she is already an established name among the Indian athletes.
 
Hailing from a hamlet near Pudukottai, the Tamil Nadu girl won a silver medal at last year’s Asian championships in Incheon, clocking 2:04.01.  This year after finishing seventh in her pet 800m in the first leg of Asian Grand Prix at Bangkok, Shanthi went on to win silver medals in the next two legs held at Bangalore and Pune, behind country-mate Pinki Pramanik. She was also silver medallist behind her at Colombo during the South Asian Games in the 800m, but took a gold over 1500m in the Sri Lankan capital.
 
Doubles for Abraham and Jaisha
 
Joseph Abraham recorded a rare double by winning the 400m flat and Hurdles.  In the absence of Patlavath Shankar, he easily won the hurdles in 51.48. This was a full second slower than his personal best of 50.43 for his fourth place in the Asian GP at Bangalore during May, where Shankar clocked the national best of 50.39 for the bronze.  Surprisingly Joseph found no challenge in the flat 400m here and garnered his second gold in a time of 46.70.
 
Bright from her 5000m gold in South Asian Games, O-P Jaisha recorded a personal best 4:11.83 to win the 1500m her before taking the 5000m in a time of 16:05.26.
 
National records by Sreedharan and Devi
 
Preeja Sreedharan was another long distance runner with noteworthy marks in the recent meets.  Preeja registered 34:11.45 for the national women’s 10,000m record, which was over 15 secs faster than her previous record of 34:27.13 set while winning the South Asian title in August. 
 
After having produced her best on the road (1:39:29) during a national endurance meet earlier here, Deepmala Devi race walked 20,000m on track in 1:39:30.5 for another national record.
 
Jose and Aravind the fastest   
 
The Indian railways team had its fair share of honours in the national athletics scene.  Its team-members took 27 titles, 16 of which had come from their women athletes in this championship. 
 
In the 100m sprints, Deepti Jose (11.84) and A. Aravind (10.47) have become the fastest woman and man of the meet respectively.  Aravind improved his previous best by 0.23 secs and anchored his team to victory in the sprint relay, wherein the railway team clocked 39.89  - the best by a department team at the nationals. 
 
The Railways defends the overall team titles in both men and women divisions.

However, Bibu Mathew of Services triple jumped to 16.29m and was judged the ‘best athlete’ among the men.
 
Krishna Poonia overwhelmed her opponents in the women’s Discus Throw with a commendable 60.10m release. Having won three silver medals behind Song Aimin in the Asian GP series this year, Poonia has gained a lot of experience this year..
 
High jumper Harishankar Roy made a comeback and comfortably sailed over 2.18m for the men’s title.  Ritu Rani also made a return to the circle and confirmed her supremacy by demoting the national record-holder Hardeep Kaur to second place in women’s hammer throw – 59.23m to 56.58m.  Satyendra Kumar emerged as a new hero in the men’s Shot Put (18.53m).
 
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF      
 

Results: dates of events in brackets
 
MEN:
 
100m (6) [w: 0.4]:
1. A. Aravind 10.44; 2. Vishal Saxena 10.64; 3. Sameer Mon 10.66;
 
200m (8) [w: 0.1]:
1. Vishal Saxena 21.33; 2. B.G. Nagaraj 21.35; 3. A. Aravind 21.46;
 
400m (6):
1. Joseph Abraham 46.70; 2. Aboo Backar 46.91; 3. Bhupinder Singh 46.95;
 
800m (8):
1. R. Rajeev 1:48.89; 2. Sajeesh Joseph 1:50.34; 3. Jaskaran 1:52.14;
 
1500m (5):
1. C. Hamza 3:44.76; 2. Sunil Kumar 3:51.66; 3. Sandeep kumar 3:52.06;
 
5000m (8):
1. Sunil Kumar 14:00.61; 2. Santosh Kumar 14;10.21; 3. Kashinath Aswale 14:19.65;
 
10,000m (4):
1. Surinder Singh 29:30.48; 2. Soji Mathew 29:35.29; 3. Santhosh Kumar 29:39.71;
 
3000m Steeplechase (6):
1. Om Prakash 8:55.61; 2. Bhagwan Diwakar 8:56.06; 3. Ram Bahadur Subba 9:14.30;
 
110m Hurdles (6) [w: 0.4]:
1. H. Rohit 14.68; 2. Rajesh Mathew 14.72; 3. Gulzar Singh 14.83;
 
400m Hurdles (8):
1. Joseph Abraham 51.48; 2. Ranjodh Singh 52.28; 3. Satinder Singh 52.50;
 
 
High Jump (8):
1. Harishankar Roy 2.18; 2. Vinod Kumar 2.14; 3. Benedict Starly 2.11; 
 
Pole Vault (7):
1. V.V. Geesh Kumar 4.85; 2. K. Shyju 4.70; 3. Gajanan Upadhyaya 4.70; 
 
Long Jump (6):
1. Maha Singh 7.74; 2. Shivshankar Yadav 7.68; 3. R. Rajesh 7.66;
 
Triple Jump (8):
1. Bibu Mathew 16.29/0.0; 2. M. Renjith 16.29/0.3; 3. Alex Thomas 16.16/0.4; \
 
Shot Put (5):
1. Satyendra Kumar 18.53; 2. Jaiveer Singh 17.93; 3. Saurabh Vij 17.55;
 
Discus Throw (8):
1. V. Singh 52.84; 2. Harpreet Singh 52.56; 3. Rambir Singh 52.20;
 
Hammer Throw (6):
1. Nirbhay Singh 66.55; 2. Harinder Singh 61.46; 3. Imran Ahmad 60.88;
 
Javelin Throw (7):
1. Gajendra Kumar 75.06; 2. Anil Kumar 73.96; 3. Om Narain 71.88;
 
Decathlon (7/8):
1. P.J. Vinod 7120; 2. Ram Niwas 6871; 3. Daya Ram 6718;
 
20,000m Walk (7):
1. Gurdev Singh 1:27:58.4; 2. P.S. Jalan 1:29:32.0; 3. Gurmeet Singh 1:30:48.4;
 
4 x 100m Relay (7):
1. Railways (Vishal Saxena, Amit Kumar Saha, Vilas Neelgund, A. Aravind) 39.89; 2. Services 40.87; 3. Jharkhand 41.98;
 
4 x 400m Relay (8):
1. Railways (S. Sreenivas, Srikant Padhi, Sunil Kumar, P.S. Sreejith) 3:10.43; 2. Services  3;11.85; 3. Haryana 3:16.43;
 
WOMEN:
 
100m (6) [w: 0.0]:
1. Deepti Jose 11.84; 2. Ranjita Roy 11.92; 3. H.M. Jyoti 12.02;
 
200m (8) [w: 0.4]:
1. Chitra K Soman 24.08; 2. Rakhi Saha 24.54; 3. H.M. Jyothi 24.62;
 
400m (6):
1. Pinki Pramanik 53.06; 2. Satti Geetha 55.48; 3. Mandeep Kaur 55.65;
 
800m (8):
1. S. Shanthi 2:02.21; 2. Pinki Pramanik 2:03.37; 3. Sinimol Paulose 2:04.07;
 
1500m (5):
1. O.P. Jaisha 4:11.83 (CR); 2. Sinimol Paulose 4:12.24; 3. S. Shanthi 4:22.93;
 
5000m (8):
1. O.P. Jaisha 16:05.26; 2. Madhuri Gurnule 17:52.93; 3. Rashmi Gurnule 18:19.93;
 
10,000m (4):
1. Preeja Sreedharan 34:11.45 (National Record); 2. Preeti L Rao 36:21.65; 3. Madhuri Gurnule 38:08.95;
 
3000m Steeplechase (6):
1. Kamlesh Baghel 11:18.40; 2. Chaina Bhattacharjee 11:23.27; 3. Kiran Tiwari 11:34.37;
 
100m Hurdles (6) [w: 1.0]:
1. Anuradha Biswal 14.12; 2. Shankari 14.57; 3. Shyamlamol 14.98;
 
400m Hurdles (8):
1. Pooja Jakhar 59.28; 2. Baljeet Kaur 59.83; 3. Babita Singh 60:26;
 
High Jump (5):
1. Sahana Kumari 1.74; 2. Tessymol Joseph 1.74; 3. Harshini Kumari 1.65;
 
Pole Vault (6):
1. V.S. Surekha 3.85; 2. Gitanjali Bora 3.60; 3. Chetna Solanki 3.60;
 
Long Jump (8):
1. J.J. Shobha 6.32/-0.4; 2. G.G. Pramila 6.19/0.2; 3. Shalu Chodhary 5.92/-0.4;
 
Triple Jump (7):
1. Manisha Dey 13.33; 2. Salamma Antony 12.70; 3. Kalpana Das 12.60;
 
Shot Put (8):
1. Saroj Sihag 14.52; 2. Manpreet Kaur 13.99; 3. S. Saraswathi 13.48;
 
Discus Throw (7):
1. Krishna Poonia 60.10; 2. Harwant Kaur 54.35; 3. Seema Antil 54.20;
 
Hammer Throw (5):
1. Ritu Rani 59.23; 2. Hardeep Kaur 56.58; 3. Usma Daryan 56.21;
 
Javelin Throw (6):
1. Megha Pardeshi 49.44; 2. S. Saraswathi 46.76; 3. Gurpreet Kaur 45.87;
 
Heptathlon (5/6):
1. Soma Biswas 5720; 2. Sushmita Singha Roy 5678; 3. J.J. Shobha 5586;
 
20,000m Walk (6):
1. L .Deepmala Devi 1:39:30.5 (National Record); 2. Amandeep Kaur 1:48:52.3; 3. Supriya Adhak 1:52:04.7;
 
4 x 100m Relay (7):
1. Railways (Poonam Tomar, Ranjita Roy, Deepti Jose, G.D. Gowramma) 46.31; 2. Delhi 49.58; 3. Police 52.02;
 
4 x 400m Relay (8):
1. Railways (Pavitra Chaudhary, Anbu Vimala, Sutapa Das, Satti Geetha) 3:48.01; 2. Andhra Pradesh  4:09.41; 3. Police 4:17.14