Pathetic show by Indians

OSTEND (BELGIUM), MARCH 25. The Indian junior women's team, spearheaded by Manjula Lakshmaiah's 55th-place finish, and the men's short race team, led by Vijay Pal's 82nd-place finish, secured the 17th and 20th places, respectively, in the World cross-country championships here on Saturday.

The day was marked by the success of Briton Paula Radcliffe, at long last, in the women's long race and the sweep of the other two individual titles at stake on the opening day by the Kenyan runners.

Kenya also took two of the three team titles while Ethiopia claimed the other. The Kenyan winners were Enoch Koech (men's short race) and Viola Kibiwot (junior women).

In the women's long race, the Indian team finished 16th out of 18 teams. One hundred and seven athletes finished the women's long race course, 123 completed the junior women's race and 156 did the men's short race.

The results: men's short race (4-km): 1. Enock Koech (Ken) 12:40, 2. Kenensia Bekele (Eth) 12:42, 3. Benjamin Limo (Ken) 12:43. Indian placings: Vijay Pal (82) 13:59,, Arun D' Souza (93) 14:10, Kuldeep Kumar (98) 14:14, Bahadur Singh (128) 14:52. Team placings: 1. Kenya , 2. Morocco, 3. Ethiopia. (India-20th)

Women's long race (8-km): 1. Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 27:49, 2. Gete Wami (Eth) 27:52, 3. Lydia Cheromei (Ken) 28:07. Indian placings: Vijaya Sonawane (91) 34:49, W. Aruna Devi (93) 35:10, Bhagwati (96) 35:41, Sharda Gawande (101) 37:35. Team placings: 1. Kenya, 2. Ethiopia, 3. France. (India 16th)

Junior women's race (6-km): 1. Viola Kibiwot (Ken) 2. Abebech Negussie (Eth) 22:05, 3. Aster Bacha (Eth) 22:05. Indian placings: Manjula Lakshmaiah (55) 24:29, Preeja Sreedharan (83) 25:12, B. Nagamani (85) 25:14, Dimple Naidu (106) 26:19. Team placings: 1. Ethiopia, 2. Kenya, 3. Japan. (India 17th).

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Section  : Sport
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