PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

GOLDEN EFFORT: Railways' Krishna Poonia bagged the women's discus gold in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Krishna Poonia registered a career-best 60.10 metres to nose ahead of favourites Seema Antil and Harwant Kaur in the women's discus competition on the fourth day of the 46th Open National athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

Krishna, who like Seema and Harwant, had been to Ukraine for a training stint recently, salvaged some pride for the `foreign-returned' bunch with her feat that bettered her previous best of 58.65 at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Slump

In the Asian Games context, even as Krishna's form provided some cheer to the coaches, Seema's slump, not to speak of the inability of Harwant to come out of the mediocre rut, should continue to cause anxiety.

The 29-year-old Krishna opened with 60.10 but had three fouls after that. She had two other throws of 57.80 and 54.72. She could only manage a 54.80 in the recent AFI-Salwan meet. She had won the Inter-State title in Chennai in 2004, but had invariably been under the shadow of the top three in India, Neelam Jaswant Singh, now under suspension, Seema and Harwant.

With the third-place criterion for the Asian Games being 59.89, Krishna can count herself `in' unless the roles are dramatically reversed in the Inter-State meet in Chennai next month.

Seema seemed to have extended her poor run from the Salwan meet (57.04m) to this one, finishing third with 54.20. She took only two throws before withdrawing from the competition. She was reported to be having a fever. Harwant, with a third-round 54.35 took the silver, but she was way off her wonted form.

Frustration

The fall in standards of those who have trained abroad, the mysterious illnesses and injuries that have forced several top-notchers to skip this meet as well as the Salwan meet earlier, and the contention of the foreign coaches that their wards were expected to `peak' only at Doha, have all contributed to a sense of frustration among those who expect high quality results in an Asian Games year.

On a day when action on the track was limited to the sprint relay finals, apart from the heats, the Railway men's team became the first departmental or State unit to crack the 40-second barrier at home.

The 4x100m team of Vishal Saxena, Amit Kumar Saha, Vilas Neelgund and A. Aravind clocked 39.89 seconds to better the Railway team's 2005 meet record of 40.22. The National mark stands at 39.36 secs, the time that the Indian team of Sanjay Ghosh, Piyush Kumar, Anand Menezes and Anil Kumar clocked while coming fourth in the Busan Asian Games in 2002.

Gajendra Kumar of the Railways got the better of the Kiev-returned campers, Anil Kumar and Om Narayan in javelin throw, with an effort of 75.06 metres. Anil had a 73.96 and Om Narayan 71.88 for the second and third places. Jagdish Bishnoi who had won the bronze at the last Asian championships in Incheon, Korea, finished fourth with 71.40.

The results:

Men: Pole vault: 1. Geesh Kumar (Pol) 4.85, 2. V. Shyju (Ser) 4.70, 3. Gajanan Updhyaya (Rly) 4.70; Javelin: 1. Gajendra Kumar (Rly) 75.06, 2. Anil Kumar (Rly) 73.96, 3. Om Narayan (Rly) 71.88; 20,000m walk: 1. Gurdev Singh (Ser) 1:27:58.4 2. P. S. Jalan (Ser) 1:29:32.0, 3. Gurmeet Singh (Pol) 1:30:48.4; 4x100m: 1. Railways 39.89 (NMR, previous 40.22), 2. Services 40.87, 3. Jharkhand 41.98.

Women: Triple jump: 1. Monisha Dey (Rly) 13.33, 2. Salamma Antony (Rly) 12.70, 3. Kalpana Das (Rly) 12.60; Discus: 1. Krishna Poonia (Rly) 60.10, 2. Harwant Kaur (Pun) 54.35, 3. Seema Antil 54.20; 4x100m: 1. Railways 46.31, 2. Delhi 49.58, 3. Police 52.02.

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