The Hindu : Railways takes team title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Railways takes team title
By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, MARCH 23. Indian Railways won the team title in men's section with a tally of 242.10 points in the 42nd senior National gymnastics championship for men and women at Fateh Maidan Indoor Stadium here on Saturday. Punjab (233.70 points) and Services (230.90 points) were placed second and third respectively.

Powered by some impressive performances from internationals Sarfraz Ahmed, who recorded a score of 8.00 each in vaulting horse and parallel bar, 7.60 in horizontal bar, 8.10 in floor exercises and 8.00 and 8.60 in pommel horse and Roman rings, and consistent scores from Sudip Jana and Rajeev Ranjan, Railways capitalised on the wonderful opportunity provided to them by the absence of the leading lights from defending champion Uttar Pradesh, which even failed to qualify for the final rounds. Railways was the runner-up in last edition.

For Punjab, Kuldeep Kumar, Ravinder Kumar and Lalit Kumar shone well while, for Services the key performances came from M. Manmode, M. Shinoj and R.K. Vijay Singh.

Despite finishing fourth, host Andhra Pradesh, had lot to cheer about as its star gymnast, 17-year-old B.N. Shiva Kumar once again demonstrated why he could be the one to watch out in the individual events on Sunday. Ironically, he recorded the best scores amongst all the gymnasts from the top four teams with scores of 8.20 in parallel bar, 8.00 in horizontal bar, 8.30 in pommel horse and second best score of 8.20 of all the competitors in final qualifying round in Roman rings. But what prevented Andhra from finishing atleast a creditable third was the failure of the others, as the coach G. Ravinder put it, to come up with good scores in the horizontal bar and pommel horse.

Sadly, none of his team-mates came up with a matching performance to the splendid show by Shiva Kumar, who was the all- round champion in the recently conducted junior Nationals winning six gold.

Clearly the sparse crowd was on its feet when the aerobics events began late in the evening and the 14-member jury had a tough time in deciding the winner in the mixed pairs event even as they adjudged Vibhor Dutta and Tandeep of Haryana as the winners.

What was pitiable was that aerobics were conducted on wrestling mats and not on the wooden flooring and here also the gymnasts had lot of hesitation for opting for those elegant, right twists to impress the jury.

The results:

Team championship: 1. Indian Railways 242.10 pts, 2. Punjab 233.70 pts, 3. Services 230.70 points.

Individual scores (on each apparatus by gymnasts from top three teams, the order being vaulting horse, parallel bar, horizontal bar, floor exercises, pommel horse, roman rings): Railways: Sarfraz Ahmed (8.00, 8.00, 7.60, 8.10, 8.00, 8.60); Sudip Jana (8.00, 7.50, 7.80, 8.20, 7.30, 8.10); Rajeev Ranjan (8.30, 8.30, 8.10, 8.20, 7.50, 7.80); Sameer Raghu (7.90, -, 7.80, -, -, -); Prasonjit Badhra (8.30, 8.30, 7.90, 8.30, 6.30, 8.10); Gaurav Shah (-, 8.00, 8.10, 7.90, 8.30, 8.20); Praveen Sharma (7.90, 8.50, -, 8.20, 7.80, 7.90).

Punjab: Kuldeep Kumar (7.60, 7.70, 8.00, 8.00, 7.70, 8.20); Ravinder Kumar (7.20, 7.40, 7.30, -, 5.34, 6.80); Lalit Kumar 7.70, -, -, 8.30, 7.10, 7.90); Paramjit Singh (7.60, 7.60, 7.80, 8.40, 7.70, 8.20); Gurbux Singh (7.90, 7.30, 8.10, 7.50, 7.00, -); Naresh Kumar (-, 7.30, 8.00, 7.20, -, 7.80); Jaideep Sharma (8.00, 7.90, 7.90, 8.30, 7.20, 7.90).

Services: M. Manmode (7.70, 6.70, 6.30, 8.10, 6.60, 7.90); M. Shinoj (8.20, 7.50, 8.00, 8.10, 6.50, 7.90); R.R. Vijay Singh (7.80, 8.20, 7.40, 8.10, 6.90, 8.20); Sk. Zakiruddin (8.30, 6.90, 8.00, 6.60, 8.00); P.P. Rewle (-0, 7.30, -, 8.10, 7.30, 7.60); T. Harsh (7.90,-, 7.40, 8.30, 5.80, -).

Aerobics: Men's singles: 1. K.S. Inobi (Manipur) 15.70 points, 2. Aditya Joshi (Maharashtra) 15.65 pts, 3. Sunil (MP) 15.30 pts.

Women's singles: 1. M. Luwang (Manipur) 15.90 points, 2. Sonia (Haryana) 14.95 pts, 3. Jisha (Kerala) 12.55 pts.

Mixed pairs: Gold: Vibhor Dutta & Tandeep (Haryana), Silver: Ameya & Vaishali (Maha); Bronze: Atul & Tanvinder Kaur (J & K).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport