The Hindu : Karamjeet Kaur vaults to new high

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 08, 2002

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Karamjeet Kaur vaults to new high

By K.P. Mohan

Punjab's Karamjit Kaur, who set a National record, in action on the opening day of the Open National athletics championship at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt.

NEW DELHI SEPT. 7. The Asian Games certainties and hopefuls could not raise expectations beyond that was available the past few months even as someone who was not in contention for a place in the Busan-bound team went through her National-record-breaking routine on the opening day of the Open National athletic championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

The lone athlete to better a National mark was woman pole vaulter Karamjeet Kaur. It had become such a habit with Karamjeet that one has lost count of her National marks the past three years or so. Yet, no matter that the 23-year-old Punjab woman added a whopping 20 centimetres to her own existing record of 3.25m, her feat in a light drizzle in the morning was not the topic of discussion by late evening.

Instead, it was the overall slump in standards, barring that in the women's 400 metres, that was the talking point on a rain-drenched day. Even the women's 400m could not rise above the current standards beyond a point, though yet another sub-52 by K.M. Beenamol followed by a personal best of 52.49s by Jincy Philip were creditable efforts when a lot many others seemed to be going through the motion.

With the berths in the Asian Games squad already finalised in a majority of the cases, the lack of interest among the `non-elite' bunch was understandable, but not the below-par efforts by the Asiad probables.

Paramjeet Singh, the country's top quarter-miler not long ago and the man who won a bronze in Bangkok four years ago, once again came third best in the 400 metres despite the fact that he had been approved as the individual entry in the event in Busan.

The other one-lapper in the Asian Games squad, P. Ramachandran, had opted out because of viral fever and it was a tailor-made opportunity for Paramjeet to win his first race of the season.

As it turned out, Paramjeet was comfortably beaten by K.J. Manojlal, running a personal best of 46.01s, improving on his Federation Cup effort of 46.04. Satbir Singh also finished ahead of Paramjeet, who could not show his customary strength on the home straight.

Beenamol looked a little sluggish on the finishing straight and yet clocked a 51.90, that bettered her own meet record set in Calcutta in 2000. Behind her, Jincy Philip, without the indisposed Manjima Kuriakose to challenge her, ran a career-best 52.49, bettering the 52.57s she clocked for the second place in the circuit meet in Ludhiana last month-end.

Personal best for Sanjay

Without Anil Kumar in fray because of a hip discomfort he felt after the heats, his Services team-mate Sanjay Ghosh won the 100 metres, in a personal best of 10.46s. Piyush Kumar, who seemed to have slept on the blocks, did well past the 50-metre mark to take the silver while Maharashtra's Ganesh Satpute surprised camper H. Jayachandran for the bronze.

As was to be expected, Karamjeet Kaur scaled a new high in women's pole vault. Having missed the Inter-State meet and then finished a surprise second to V.N. Surekha in The Federation Cup, Karamjeet has not been in the news much this season. But today, she seemed to have come well prepared.

After a delay caused by rain, with the vaulters hesitant to start because of the risk factor, Karamjeet entered the contest at 3.00m and by the time she went past 3.20, the others had bowed out of the competition. She cleared 3.45 on her first attempt and had three failures at 3.50.

With Gulab Chand preferring to sit out, the men's 10,000 metres lost much of its sheen, though there was a good contest among the front-runners. Once into the final lap, with Aman Saini right on the shoulder of Gojen Singh and Jagannath Lakade, it was clear that the Himachal youngster will pull away easily on the final backstraight and score.

That is how it turned out. As Saini kicked from 300 metres out, Gojen gave up, eventually to finish fifth while Lakade and Dharamvir kept up the feeble challenge. Saini was comfortable on the straight with Dharamvir making a fine finish for the silver, ahead of Lakade, the bronze winner in the recent Asian championships in Colombo.

The shot putters, barring Shakti Singh, who reached 19.42m, touched new `lows'. Bahadur Singh had a `no mark' listed against his name, fouling his first three attempts while Navpreet's best was 17.69m.

The relay trials were uneventful barring the dropped baton by Vinita Tripathi on the second leg. The women were allowed another attempt in the 4x100m trials and they clocked 44.73 as against the Asian Games qualification mark of 44.50s. The others were Poonam Tomar, who has not been named in the squad yet, Anuradha Biswal and Saraswati Saha.

The men's quartet comprising Sanjay Ghosh, Piyush Kumar, Anand Menezes and Clifford Joshua clocked 39.58s against the norm of 39.30s. Without Anil Kumar this was a fine effort, though it fell short of the requisite standard.

The results:

Men: 100m: 1. Sanjay Ghosh (Ser) 10.46s, 2. Piyush Kumar (Rly) 10.54, 3. Ganesh Satpute (Mah) 10.62; 400m: 1. K.J. Manojlal (Rly) 46.01s, 2. Satbir Singh (Ser) 46.39, 3. Paramjeet Singh (Pol) 46.45; 1500m: 1. Kuldeep Kumar (UP) 3:49.19, 2. Mahender Kumar Yadav (Ser) 3:50.56, 3. Ghamanda Ram (Ser) 3:51.18; 10,000m: 1. Aman Saini (HP) 30:42.22, 2. Dharamvir (Rly) 30:43.42, 3. Jagannath Lakade (Ser) 30:45.84.

Long jump: 1. Shiv Shankar (UP) 7.65m, 2. S. Ramachandran (TN) 7.63, 3. Amrit Pal Singh (Pun) 7.45; Shot put: 1. Shakti Singh (Rly) 19.42m, 2. Navpreet Singh (Pun) 17.69, 3. Mohatam Singh (Ser) 16.93.

Women: 100m: 1. Saraswati Saha (Rly) 11.43s (NMR, old 11.58s), 2. Poonam Tomar (Rly) 11.70, 3. Vinita Tripathi (LIC) 11.70; 400m: 1. K.M. Beenamol (Rly) 51.90s (NMR, old 52.25), 2. Jincy Philip (Pol) 52.49, 3. Soma Biswas (Rly) 53.25; 1500m: 1. Harjeet Kaur (Pol) 4:21.80, 2. Sunita Kumari (Rly) 4:24.26, 3. Paramjeet Kaur (Pun) 4:27.78; 10,00m: 1. L. Aruna Devi (Rly) 34:57.32 (NMR, old 35:27.0), 2. Pushpa Devi (Rly) 36:08.18, 3. Madhuri Gurnule (LIC) 36:21.61.

Pole vault: 1. Karamjeet Kaur (Pun) 3.45m (National record, old 3.25m), 2. Chetna Solanki (Bih) 3.10, 3. V.S. Surekha (T.N) 3.00; Discus: 1. Neelam J. Singh (Rly) 58.47m, 2. Harwant Kaur (LIC) 58.43, 3. Seema Antil (Har) 53.52; Javelin: 1. Gurmeet Kaur (LIC) 52.91m (NMR with new javelin, old 50.96), 2. Manisha Mondal (Rly) 49.28, 3. Suman Devi (UP) 47.69.

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