Athletics: Golden double for Gurnule, Gurpreet, Harwant

By K.P. Mohan

LUDHIANA, NOV. 24. Gurpreet Singh completed a golden double in front of adoring home fans. He clocked a personal best while winning the 400-metre hurdles by a long margin on the fifth day of the National Games athletic championships at the Guru Nanak Stadium here on Saturday. Only the previous day, he had won the high hurdles gold.

A personal best and a double also materialised for the wisp of a girl from Maharashtra, Madhuri Gurnule, as she clocked 34:50.89 for the 10,000 metres to add to her 5000m gold.

A double was also there for Harwant Kaur to take as the Punjab woman, whose entry was protested by Jharkhand, took the shot put title with a below-par 15.25m. She had been coming second behind Tamil Nadu's N. Latha throughout this season, but the roles were reversed this time. Harwant had earlier won the discus gold, upsetting favourite Neelam J. Singh.

Only in his third meet for the intermediate hurdles, Gurpreet showed excellent touch down the finishing straight, breezing through the final 40 metres as though he still had plenty in reserve. His 51.66s was an improvement over his Chennai Open timing (51.8s) as well as the meet mark of 52.15 set by Rajeev Balakrishnan in Pune in 1994.

``I am trying out the 400 hurdles only as a preparation for my main event (110m hurdles),'' said Gurpreet.

Madhuri Gurnule is having a great spell after returning to the track from a bout of malaria prior to the Lucknow inter-State.

She scored the distance double in the Chennai Open and she repeated the feat here.This was easier than her 5000m victory the other day. Expectedly, Delhi girl Pushpa Devi was the one to challenge her, but once Madhuri started pulling away with about seven laps to go, Pushpa had problems in keeping up.

With four laps left for the finish, Mahduri, who hails from Soner, near Nagpur, was on her own, about 150 metres ahead of Pushpa and running towards a possible meet record.

That did not accrue, though, as she finished more than 200 metres ahead of Pushpa. Meet record or not, coach Sanjay `Bhau' Kane could not have complained. Kane was overcome with emotion as Madhuri touched his feet, surrounded by a bunch of jubilant Maharashtra officials.

Saini thwarts Shankar

About three quarters of an hour earlier, Aman Saini was touching his former coach and former international Suman Rawat's feet after he pulled off a stunning victory over K. Shankar in the 10,000 metres. The frail Himachal youngster who struggled to keep his shorts in place for nearly half the distance - a broken elastic must have been the culprit - produced a devastating final `kick' over the straight that left Shankar helpless. The Tamil Nadu man was gunning for a hat-trick of doubles, having won both the distance events at the inter-State and the Open, and the 5000m here.

Andhra's Udaylakshmi had a personal best of 57.75s as he won a close battle with Punjab's Sapinder Kaur and Tamil Nadu's V. Jayalakshmi in the 400m hurdles.

The results:

Men: 10,000m1. Aman Saini (HP) 31:10.52, 2. K. Shankar (TN) 31:12.66, 3. Jagnnath Lakade (Ser) 31:13.25; 400m hurdles: 1. Gurpreet Singh (Pun) 51.66s (NMR, old 52.15), 2. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 52.46, 3. Surinder Kumar (Pun) 53.00; Long jump: 1. Sanjay Kumar Rai (UP) 7.74m, 2. Santosh George (Ser) 7.43, 3. Amritpal Singh (Pun) 7.32.

Women: 10,000m: 1. Madhuri Gurnule (Mah) 34:50.89, 2. Pushpa Devi (Del) 35:33.64, 3. Beant Kaur (Pun) 36:22.56; 400m hurdles: 1. Uday Laxmi (AP) 57.75s, 2. Sapinder Kaur (Pun) 58.91, 3. V. Jayalakshmi (TN) 59.07; Shot put: 1. Harwant Kaur (Pun) 15.25, 2. N. Latha (TN) 15.05, 3. Amandeep Kaur (Chd) 13.73.

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