The Hindu : Triathlon: Akhil, Sneha bag titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - National Games

Triathlon: Akhil, Sneha bag titles

By G. Narasimha Rao

VISAKHAPATNAM DEC. 20. Akhil Sheikh of Services and Sneha Shampur of Karnataka won their maiden National Games triathlon titles here on Friday.

Sneha won the race from start to finish in all the three legs: swimming, cycling and running but Akhil Sheikh survived a stiff competition from his teammate, Mahesh Shinde and Haryana's Kaptan Singh and crossed the finish line just 0.05 seconds ahead of Mahesh in two hours and 16.46 minutes and Kaptan Singh, winner of the National championship held here two years ago while representing Services, was just 0.01 second behind Mahesh.

Sneha made her debut in the National Games memorable. She completed the race in 2:29:27, the second-placed T.S. Kavya also from Karnataka was nearly eight minutes behind in 2:38:03 while Premita Devi of Manipur finished in 2:52:23.

Mahesh took a good lead in swimming, 27:49 minutes compared to Kaptan Singh's timing of 28.42 and Akhil Sheikh's 28:49 but lagged behind in the cycling leg though the three competitors were almost together for most part of the race. Akhil established lead finishing the cycle race in 1:08:30, followed by Kaptan Singh in 1:08:38 and Mahesh in 1:09:29.

As the race entered the running phase, Akhil and Mahesh were running almost equal throughout but the former pipped the latter at the post.

The results: men: 1. Akhil Sheikh (Svc, 2:16:46), 2. Mahesh Shinde (Svc), 3. Kaptan Singh (Har).

Women: Sneha Shampur (Kar, 2:29:27), 2. T.S. Kavya (Kar), 3. Premita Devi (Man).

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