Railways bags overall title; Sanjay, Pramod Kumar set new marks

By S. Thyagarajan

CHENNAI, OCT. 21. Even as one more National athletics championship went into recess of history at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sunday it is difficult to resist the temptation of raising the poser, ``where do we go next?'' Times were conquered, distances were enhanced but the note of despair remains as ever.

One cannot flinch however, from paying a tribute to the achievers whose resilience in the face of various shortcomings was striking as illustrated by the deeds of Pramod Kumar Tiwari in hammer throw, Sanjay Kumar Rai in the triple jump and Soma Biswas in heptathlon.

Quite predictably, Railways continued its hegemony both in the men and women sections retaining the team championships and finished the event with an overall total of 324 points.

Honours on the final day went to the renowned thrower of the hammer, Pramod Kumar Tiwari. What needs to be stressed about this 26-year-old Allahabadi is the measure of his consistency in carving out new marks. Though international acclaim is yet to get into his bio-data, the manner in which he has been progressing is striking. On Sunday, this well chiseled warrior, hit a new high with a distance of 70.05, improving his meet record of 68.60 metres. Interestingly, Tiwari won in the recent inter-state meet also at Lucknow with a record distance of 68.98m.

The National mark in this event is Ishtiaq Ahmed's at 69.58m which he conquered today. But the effort of 70.13m. by Ishtiaq at the Bangalore National Circuit meet however is yet to be ratified by the Amateur Athletics Federation of India.

Pramod began with a foul, recorded 68.82m in the second and failed in the third. Only in the fifth attempt did he achieve the new mark of 70.05 m. and ended the sequence with a throw of 69.02m.

Satisfying win for Sanjay

For Sanjay Kumar Rai, victory with a new distance of 16.23 metres in the triple jump should have been more satisfying than the unrecorded best effort in the long jump, declared as wind assisted after he cleared 8.02 metres. On Sunday, Sanjay Kumar Rai had his name listed as the meet record holder bettering the 16.01m by B.S.Vinod of Police in New Delhi in 1996. Prithpal Singh also joined Sanjay Kumar Rai in breaking the record with a distance of 16.02m.

Sanjay opened with a 14.91m and improved it to 15.74 in the second. A pass in the third and a foul in fourth left one wondering whether he was in the mood for a record. But in the fifth attempt, he achieved that with a neat jump of 16.23m. and did not take the final jump.

On the distaff side, the best of the day came was from Soma Biswas in heptathlon. Leading at 3278 on day one, Soma performed with credit in long jump (6.05m), in javelin (42.95m) and 800 metres (2:16.50s) for a total of 5739, which improved the meet record of Pramila Ganapathy by 34 points, created at Calcutta in 1998. Soma Biswas, however, holds the national record at 6186 points set last year in the same venue.

Double for Anil Kumar

Anil Kumar completed a sprint double, taking the 200 metres after a majestic run but not without a challenge. Despite enjoying a fairly good lead midway through, Anil had to contend with the splendid spurt by Anand Menezes and Ajayraj Singh. The time between Anil Kumar (21.20s) and Anand Menezes (21.31 s) conveys the closeness of the race.

Equally creditable was the double of Kavitha Pandya who ran beautiful race in the 200 metres. She won the 100 on Saturday, and for Kavitha it proved a tremendously lucrative and memorable one.

Distance running is a fine art, and Tamil Nadu's Shankar, a veteran in the field from Nilgiris, seems to have perfected it, if the measure of consistency he is able to bring into his achievements. The National Open proved no exception as he added the 10,000 metres this morning to the 5,000 won on the opening day.

Gold for Sangeetha

Tamil Nadu, one of the state units, which had a fairly splendid run in the competition, had a winner in the high jump event for women. M. Sangeetha, a 17-year old, from SBOA School, clinched the gold with a height of 1.75m. although, after failing twice in 1.78m. She asked the bar to be raised to 1.81 for an assault on the meet record by Bobby Aloysius. But the latter, who had a long stint of training in Russia, managed only a 1.72 m. perhaps not being able to adjust to the prevailing weather conditions in here.

Mr. Walter I.Dawaram, President, Tamil Nadu Amateur Athletics Association, and Vice-President, AAFI, gave away the prizes and Mr.Baskaradoss, Chairman, Chennai Port, presided.

lThe results: Men: 200 metres: 1. Anil Kumar (Services) (21.20s), 2. Anand Menezes (Railways) (21.31s), 3.Ajayraj Singh (Police) (21.39s).

800m: 1. K.M.Binu (Railways) (1:47.80s), 2. Primesh Kumar (Steel Plants) (1:48.49s), 3. P.J.Robin (Kerala) (1:49.94s).

10,000m: 1. K. Shankar (TN) (30:43.8s) 2. Jagannath (Services) (30:46.2s), 3. Bhairon Singh Lone (Railways) (30:51.6s).

3000 steeplechase: 1. Arun D'Souza (Railways) (9:03.82), 2. Rajesh Kumar (Services) (9:06.44), 3. Ranjan Kumar Jha (Services) (9:13.48s).

Triple Jump: 1. Sanjay Kumar Rai (Railways) (16.23m) (NMR), 2. Prithipal Singh (Police) (16.02) (NMR), 3. Maha Singh (Punjab) (15.47m).

Hammer throw: 1. Pramod Tiwari (UP) (70.05m) (NMR), 2. Virender Punia (Railways) (62.40 m), 3.Nirbhai Singh (Services) (62.11m).

Javelin throw: 1. Jagdish Bishnoi (Police) (76.74 m), 2. O.P.Dudi (Railways) (74.88 m), 3. Sunil Goswami (LIC) (73.58m).

4 x 400 relay: 1. Services (B.Vijay, Ajesh, Satvir Singh, Anil Kumar Rohil) (3:10.04s), 2. Railways (3:13.47s), 3. Tamil Nadu (3:17.32m).

Team chmpionship: Railways (148 points), 2. Services (107 points).

Women: 200m: 1. Kavitha Pandya (Railways) (24.28s), 2. Mukti Saha (Railways) (24.44s), 3. V.Jayalakshmi (TN) (24.48s).

800 metres: 1. C. Latha (TN) (2:06.37s), 2. Sunitha (Railways) (2:06.56s), 3. Tharani (TN) (2:8.39s).

10,000m: 1. Madhuri Gurmule (LIC) (36.24.5s), 2. L.Arunadevi (Railways) (37:01.9s), 3. Asha Rani (Punjab) (38:07.7s).

High Jump: 1. M. Sangeetha (TN) (1.75m), 2. Sahana Kumari (Karnataka) (1.75m), 3. Bobby Aloysius (Kerala) (1.72m).

Pole Vault: 1. Karamjit Kaur (Punjab) (3.00 m), 2. V.S.Surekha (TN) (2.70 m), 3. Pushpavathi (Railways) (2.4s).

Shot put: 1. N.Latha (Raiways) (15.31 m), 2. Harwant Kaur (Jharkand) (15.21 m), 3. Chaiteli Paul (14.78m).

Heptathlon: 1. Soma Biswas (Railways), (5739) (NMR), 2. Uday Lakshmi (Railways) (5078), 3. J.J.Shoba (Railways) (4660).

4 x 400 relay: 1. Railways (Sahebani Oram, P.Udaylakshmi, Priya Rose, K.M.Beenamol) (3:39.3), 2. Tamil Nadu (3:43.4), 3. Punjab (3:48.7s).

Team championship: 1. Railways (176 points), 2. Tamil Nadu (66 points).

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