Sport - Athletics

It's Bobby Aloysius' day

By Avinash Nair

Kerela's Bobby Aloysius, who set a National record in the women's high jump event on the final day of the Inter-State athletics meet in Bangalore on Monday.— Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE June 3. On a bright day at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here today, the 28-year old Bobby Aloysius of Kerala added a golden hue. The Kerala star, just back from Moscow after a three and a half month-training stint, exploded at the high jump pit rewriting her own previous record of 1.86 metres with a 1.90 metres clearance that won her the best woman athlete of the 42nd Inter-State National atheltics meet.

The gloomy mood of the last two days, with the exception of Satbir Singh on the first day and Anju Bobby George on the second, was palpably lifted quite early as Tamil Nadu's V.S. Surekha soared to erase Karamjit Kaur's year-old mark of 3.17 metres with a 3.18 metre effort in the women's pole vault.

With Prithpal Singh of Punjab and Sahebani Oram (Orissa) in the men's triple jump and women's 400m hurdles just about managing to equal the previous best of the meet, the focus was on at the far corner of the field as Kerala's reigning Asian champion Bobby Aloysius soared higher and higher.

The lanky star who has made a habit of winning national meets regularly entered the fray at a height of 1.70 metres and although she faultered with her first clearance at 1.56m there was something in her this day, that promised more. And the Chennai Customs Officer, gave the waiting mediamen and the whole lot of athletics fraternity something to cheer about as she first went above her meet mark of 1.84 m and then upped the bar to 1.87m. A stumble on the first two clearances did provoke a debate of sorts which was quickly silenced with a smooth sailing on her third try.

The Kerala girl attempted the 1.90 metres and she failed with her first two tries. But the anxious wait soon turned in wild cheering as the bar remained static as the national champion sailed over it, despite a faint touch. After shedding tears of joy, She then went for 1.93 metres but couldn't make it. But Never mind, her day was truely made.

Tamil Nadu's quartet of K.N. Priya, Anju George, Noosheen Rajendran and Jayalakskhmi with a golden run ensured that the women's team championship points tally was tied along with Punjab at 81 points. Karnataka men however claimed the men's title with 73 points.

Satbir Singh's under 46.0 seconds run in the men's 400 metres won him the best male athlete of the meet title, while there was no looking back beyond Bobby Aloysius for her National mark, for the corresponding women's tag.

The results: Men: 200m: 1. Clifford Joshua (Kar) 21.19s, 2. Amit Saha (WB) 21.57s, 3. Parmeshwar (Kar) 2177s.

800m: 1. Primesh P.S (Ker) 1:50.25s, 2. Jaya Kumar (Ker) 1:50.57s, 3. Raj Karan (MP) 1:50.85s.

5000m: 1. Gojen Singh (Mani) 14:24.31s, 2. Jaganath Lakade (Mah) 14:54.07s, 3. Narendra Rao (TN) 15:03.89s.

20 km walk: 1. Gurdev Singh (Pun) 1hr 30:07.0s, 2. Sitaram (Raj) 1hr 32:45.30s, 3. Gurmeet Singh (Pun) 1hr 33:20.90s.

400m Hurdles: 1. Abhishek Pandey (UP) 52.54s, 2. P.S. Pahi (Jhark) 53.40s, 3. P. Shankar (AP) 53.41s.

Triple jump: 1. Pritpal Singh (Pun) 16.18m (EMR), 2. Amarjit Singh (Pun) 16.01m, 3. Robin M Verghese (Ker) 15.19m.

Hammer throw: 1. Pramod Tiwari (AP) 64.39m, 2. Nirbhay Singh (Del) 63.59m, 3. Rakesh Kumar (UP) 63.28m.

Javelin throw: 1. Harminder Singh (Pun) 75.95m, 2. Jagdish Bishnoi (Pun) 73.76m, 3. Sunil Goswami (Del) 72.90m.

4x100m relay: 1. Karnataka 41.60s, 2. Andhra Pradesh 41.84s, 3. Kerala 42.20s.

Women: 200m: 1. V. Jayalakshmi (TN) 24.12s, 2. Mukti Saha (WB) 24.39s, 3. Sagardeep Kaur (Pun) 24.40s.

800m: 1. Sunita Dahiya (Har) 2:07.45s, 2. Harjit Kaur (Pun) 2:08.60s, 3. Ramla Devi (Pun) 2:09.39s.

5000m: 1. Sunita Rani (Pun) 16:00.28s, 2. L. Aruna Devi (WB) 16:49.72s, 3. Beant Kaur (Pun) 16:56.32s.

400m Hurdles: 1. Sahebani Oram (Ori) 57.70s (EMR), 2. Rosalyn Arokia Mary (TN) 59.01s, 3. Udayalakshmi (AP) 1:04.30s.

High jump: 1. Bobby Aloysius (Ker) 1.90m (National Record), 2. Sahana Kumari (Kar) 1.73m, 3. Seena John (Ker) 1.65m.

Pole vault: 1. V.S. Surekha (TN) 3.18m (NMR), 2. Deepa Choudhary (Del) 2.80m, 3. Jaswant Kaur (Pun) 2.50m.

Shot put: 1. Harwant Kaur (Pun) 15.75m, 2. Pramila Bharu (Assam) 11.51m, 3. B.N. Sumavathi (Kar) 10.81m.

Heptathlon: 1. Soma Biswas (WB) 5851 pts, 2. J.J. Shobha (AP) 5838 pts, 3. P. Bindu (WB) 4859 pts.

4x100m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu 46.04s, 2. Punjab 47.36s, 3. Kerala 47.39s.

Team championship: Men: 1. Karnataka 73 pts, 2. Punjab 69 pts, 3. Kerala 53 pts.

Women: 1. Tamil Nadu & Punjab tied with 81 ptsd each), 2. Kerala 60 pts.

Best athletes: Men: Satbir Singh (Har). Women: Bobby Aloysius (Ker).

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