Monday, Sep 09, 2002
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Athletics
By K.P. Mohan
At the fag end of the day-night programme, often listless and at times without a track event for prolonged spells, Hardeep Kaur stretched her National hammer record to a new distance of 61.67 metres to boost the spirits of those who have been monitoring the performance of the Busan-bound Asian Games probables. In that context alone, it was a disappointing day, no matter that Saraswati and Hardeep re-established their credentials, if that was needed. But for the rest it was a string of average performances that reminded the old-timers of better days in the not-too-distant past. Yet, if the present is what we have to discuss, especially in the Asian Games perspective, then 23-year-old Saraswati should get mention ahead of the others. For, clocking back-to-back sub-23 for the longer dash, the Tripura-born Bengal woman has staked her claims for a medal in the Asian Games in a most forceful manner. Alas, Saraswati could not better her 22.82s timed at the Ludhiana Circuit meet on August 28, coming one-hundredth of a second later than that effort. But she might well have done that had there been a better challenge though unlike Ludhiana, when only three ran, there were seven in the fray here. Vinita Tripathi, well behind for her silver, clocked a season best of 23.37s. P.T. Usha's 23.2, timed here way back in 1986, stood as the meet record, while Usha also had an electronically-timed 23.44s clocked in 1997. While Saraswati has made it look all too simple in women's sprinting, clocking sub-23s almost at will, Hardeep Kaur has steadily added to the distance in women's hammer since the exit of Jebeshori Devi. On Sunday, the Punjab woman who finished with a bronze at 57.82 in the Colombo Asian championships, threw the hammer to 61.67 metres for the National mark. Her own earlier mark, set at the National Games in Ludhiana last year, was 61.56m. Hardeep also held the meet record of 58.95, set in Calcutta two years ago. Hardeep nailed her record on her fourth attempt while she had a good series for the rest, going above 59 metres three times and 57-plus on the other two. In the Asian Games scenario, Hardeep will still be up against throwers beyond her reach with the Chinese, Gu Yuan having touched an Asian record of 71.10 at Colombo and another Chinese and a Japanese at least in the 66-plus category this season. Yet, if projections have to be believed then Hardeep is one of those with the odd chance of a medal in Busan. The throws do throw up the odd surprise medallist. The No. 2 Indian, Rajwinder Kaur, who might have stood a chance of being considered for the Asian Games, disappointed with a throw of 52.76m. The qualifying mark for this event, making its Asiad debut, was 58.00m. Meet records were also bettered in the men's 200 metres and women's triple jump, by Anand Menezes and Manisha Dey. Menezes ran a 21.06s, running away from the rest down the straight and finishing way ahead. There was none to push him, though. No Anil Kumar or Clifford Joshua. Menezes was rather disappointed with his timing though for the onlookers the margin of victory and the manner in which the Railwayman ran made quite an impact. Manisha added seven centimetres to Lekha Thomas's 1998 mark of 13.28 metres in triple jump, but with the Asian Games qualification mark way beyond at 13.70 and the top Asian standards in the 14-metre region, this was a performance that kept only the recorders busy. Anju George, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, though entered, did not compete, recovering as she is from a fever. She is however scheduled to compete on Monday in long jump. The 26-year-old havildar from the Madras Regiment Centre, Mahesh Kumar provided a surprise by winning the men's high jump contest with a personal best of 2.11 metres. The better-rated Arumugam Pillai and Maria Lorans finished behind him in that order for the silver and bronze. This was Mahesh's first medal at the senior National level, he having just a bronze at the under-22 National in Lucknow five years ago. This year, he had come fourth in The Federation Cup at Chennai, at 2.00m. The results: Men: 200m: 1. Anand Menezes (Rly) 21.06s (NMR, old 21.13s), 2. Ganesh Satpute (Mah) 21.75, 3. S. Srinivas (AP) 21.77; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Arun D' Souza (Rly) 8:51.95, 2. Ranjan Kumar Jha (Ser) 9:02.74, 3. T.D. Verghese (Pol) 9:17.91; 110m hurdles: 1. P.T. Yesudas (Rly) 14.61s, 2. Harish Kushalappa (Kar) 14.66, 3. Kuldeep Singh (Ser) 14.89; High jump: 1. Mahesh Kumar (Ser) 2.11m, 2. Arumugam Pillai (Rly) 2.08, 3. M. Lorans (Ser) 2.08; Discus: 1. Hridayanand Singh (UP) 54.63m, 2. Krishna Kumar Sharma (Pol) 51.43, 3. Davinder Kumar (Pun) 49.91; Decathlon: 1. Kulwinder Singh (Ser) 7149 points (NMR, old 7070), 2. Mandeep Kumar (Rly) 6678, 3. Vinod P. J. (Steel Plants) 6462. Women: 200m: 1. Saraswati Saha (Rly) 22.83 (NMR, old 23.2), 2. Vinita Tripathi (LIC) 23.37, 3. Rajwinder Kaur (Pol) 24.74; 100m hurdles: 1. Anuradha Biswal (Ori) 13.38 (Equal National record), 2. Poonam Bojanna (Kar) 14.06, 3. J. J. Shobha (Rly) 14.18; Triple jump: 1. Manisha Dey (Rly) 13.35m (NMR, old 13.28), 2. Shilpa Sequeira (LIC) 12.93, 3. M. Krishnapriya (TN) 12.63; Hammer: 1. Hardeep Kaur (LIC) 61.67m (National record, old 61.56), 2. Rajwinder Kaur (Pol) 52.76, 3. Ritu (Del) 47.99.
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