Memorable outing for Amudha

By Our Sports Reporter

KANPUR, OCT. 3. It was only one and a half years ago that Angamuthu Amudha was spotted by her coach P. Nagarajan from a rural meet in Gujarat. But it seems she has made the most of the fortuitous break within that short span.

Competing for the first time in a National meet, in the inter- zonal junior athletic championship here, the 17-year old Amudha capped off a memorable outing as she won the under-18 heptathlon gold on the final day of the meet at the IIT Campus. She finished with a haul of four gold and two silver in the three-day meet.

``I still have a long way to go. But I am thankful to Nagarajan sir, who has taken care of me,'' said Amudha.

For Amudha, there was hardly any break in the three- day meet event but she never relented. ``I just love being in the middle. I do get tired but can't resist from participating,'' said the frail-built girl, who has shifted to Chennai's Prime Sports Academy from her native Villupuram.

Apart from her victory in the heptathlon, in which she managed 3727 points, Amudha was also part of the South Zone team which finished second in the shorter relay. Her other wins in the previous days came in the high jump, triple jump and the 100 metres hurdles. She finished runner-up in the long jump as well. Amudha's best display was in the high jump, in which she scaled 1.60 metres, four centimetres short of the meet record.

The junior team's National coach, Mr. J. S. Saini, said, ``she looks a good prospect.''

Apart from Amudha, Mr. Saini also had words of praise for sprinter Minni Suvarna and under-20 hurdler A. Kalyani in the girls section.

The 17-year old Suvarna, a trainee from the Bhonsle Military School SAI Centre in Nasik, won the 400 metres event, in addition to her gold in the 200 metres and bronze in the 100 metres in the under-18 category.

Kalyani managed a `double' as she won both the hurdles. On Wednesday, she clocked 1:05.21 on her way to an easy win in the 400m hurdles.

On the final day, Hyderabad's K. Krishna Mohan set a new meet record in the heptathlon under-18 event, bettering Brameshwar Nath's 5833 by 50 points. ``I had scored 6246 in the South Zone meet in Bangalore this year, which is better than the National record of 6151.'' said Mohan.

In the girls under-20 pole vault, an event only introduced last year, Delhi's Deepa Choudhary equalled the meet record of 2.30 metres. She, too, claims to have set a new National record in the North Zone meet earlier, where she cleared 2.40.

The overall team championship was won by North Zone while East Zone finished second. North won the team championships in all the boys sections while East had a similar collection of team titles in the girls sections.

The results:

Junior men (under-20): 400m: 1. Ranjib Kumar Rana (East) 49.82, 2. Gurvinder Singh (North) 50.29, 3. Sudam (East) 50.53; 10,000m: 1. Hoshiyar Singh Bisht (North) 32:45.88, 2. Mahesh L. Bhosle (South) 33:20.53; 3. Brij Lal (East) 33:33.05; 400m hurdles: 1. Harminder Singh (South) 54.85, 2. Amit Singh (North) 57.44, 3. Subhash Suryavanshi (West) 57.51; Triple jump: 1. Laxmi Narayan (South) 14.62, 2. Rohit (South) 14.52, 3. Rupesh Thakur (West) 14.01; Javelin: 1. Mukesh Kumar Nehra (North) 64.00, 2. Ashish Kumar (East) 61.62; 3. Manoj Yadav (North) 60.05; Decathlon: 1. K. M. Mishra (East) 4737 points, 2. Upendra Singh (West) 4425; 10km walk: 1. Praveen (North) 48:46.0, 2. Inatomba Singh (East) 49:22.6, 3. Ratan Singh (East) 49:22.6; 4x100m relay: 1. North 43.62, 2. South 43.77, 3. East 43.98. Best athlete: Naresh Kumar (North).

Boys: Under-18: 400m: 1. Tipu Hembrum (East) 51.03, 2. Tej Singh (West) 51.04, 3. Shyam Prasad (North) 51.98; Shot put: 1. Pushpender (North) 15.48m, 2. Chandra Bhushan (East) 13.48, 3. Avinash (North) 2.84; Heptathlon: 1. K. Krishna Mohan (South) 5883 points (NMR, Brameshwar Nath, 5833, 1998), 2. D. John (South) 5524, 3. Ram P. Singh (East) 5152; 4x100m relay: 1. North 43.84, 2. South 44.33, 3. East 45.01. Best athlete: Surender Singh (North).

Under-16: 400m: 1. Manoj Kumar (North) 52.43, 2. Ganesh Chand Mahato (East) 52.65, 3. Ravi Roy (East) 53.11; 2000m: 1. Lok Nath (South) 5:48.32, 2. A. Raju (South) 5:50.74, 3. Sanjit (East) 5:52.32; Pentathlon: 1. Ramesh (North) 4050 points, 2. K. Shivnath Raj (South) 3954, 3. Ajay Kumar Yadav (North) 3833; 5000m walk: 1. Sushil Kumar Singh (East) 24:35.5, 2. Dharam Raj (North) 24:35.9, 3. Dinesh (North) 24:39.5; 4x100m: 1. South 45.70, 2. East 46.15, 3. North 46.71. Best athlete: Navesh Chand (West).

Junior women (under-20): 400m: 1. N. Tharini (South) 56.62, 2. Pratima (West) 57.01, 3. K. Chitra (East) 57.76; 400m hurdles: 1. A. Kalyani (South) 1:05.21, 2. Jyoti (North) 1:07.61, 3. Reena Roy (East) 1:09.68; Pole vault: 1. Deepa Choudhary (North) 2.30 (EMR), 2. N. Madhu (East) 2.20; Hammer: 1. Sapinder Pal Kaur (North) 42.28, 2. Sushka Devi (East) 42.11, 3. Amandeep Kaur (North) 41.87; Heptathlon: 1. Sweta Singh (North) 3399, 2. S. Savitha (South) 32.98, 3. M. G. Renu (East) 32.32; 4x100m relay: 1. South 49.87, 2. East 50.88, 3. North 54.22. Best athlete: M. Chouba (East).

Girls: Under-18: 1. Minni Suvarna (West) 58.72, 2. Sheena Joy (South) 59.66, 3. Veena Yadav (North) 1:00.84; Hammer: 1. Chaba Devi (East) 37.33, 2. Maninder (North) 32.36, 3. T.H. Chobi Devi (East) 32.26; Heptathlon: 1. A. Amudha (South) 3727 points, 2. S. Anthony (South) 3413, 3. Renu (North) 3310; 5000m walk: 1. K. M. Devi (East) 26:55.2, 2. V. Saraswathi (South) 27:28.2, 3. Meena (North) 36:12.0; 4x100m relay: 1. East 50.73, 2. South 51.53, 3. North 51.87. Best athlete: Monica Joon (North).

Under-16: 400m: 1. Parvati Hansda (East) 1:01.81; 2. T. Bindu (South) 1:01.85; 3. Shilpa Rao (South) 1:01.92; 3000m walk: 1. S. Ibemcha Devi (East) 17:11.4, 2. S.V. Laxmi (South) 17:18.6, 3. P. Nirupama Devi (East) 17:27.8; High jump: 1. Mallika (East) 1.49, 2. Sabina (East) 1.49, 3. Nandini (South) 1.49; Pentathlon: 1. T. Bindu (South) 2401, 2. Sabina Khatoon (East) 2320, 3. K. Revathi (South) 2298; 4x100m relay: 1. East 52.90, 2. South 53.31, 3. North 55.06. Best athlete: Indu Bala (North).

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