Date:13/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/13/stories/2006111308611900.htm

Sport - Athletics

Still no ray of hope

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The quarter-milers continued to disappoint as the second day of the trials for the Asian Games aspirants failed to produce anything noteworthy at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.

Tough task

Instead of the women's 400 metres projecting a more encouraging picture, the trials have made the selectors' task that much tougher. In the absence of the No. 1 quarter-miler this season, Pinki Paramanik, away in the middle distance camp in Bangalore, Asian champion Manjeet Kaur won in 53.21s, a marginal improvement over her Chennai performance of 53.70s.

The others, however, flopped miserably, exposing the limitations of the front-runners. Chitra K. Soman (54.62) was 0.92s down on her Chennai performance, while Satti Geetha, at fifth with 56.96s, was down by as much as 1.94s.

Rajwinder Kaur, going through a lean patch, could have staked her claim in the 4x400m relay team, but only confirmed her slide with a 56.26 finish for the fourth place behind Mandeep Kaur (55.22). Another disappointment was Ashik Beevi, highly rated after her Ukraine stint but missing in competition since her return reportedly because of illness. She finished sixth and last in 57.17 secs.

Tintu in the reckoning?

Kerala girl Tintu Luka's 55.15s in Chennai will perforce have to come into reckoning in the relay team composition after Sunday's trials. The 17-year-old Usha School trainee did not make it to the trials. However, the AFI Secretary, Lalit Bhanot, had told The Hindu on Friday that only performances that were better than those at Chennai would be considered.

The big question is can Tintu be considered in the relay team as the fifth runner at this late stage when formalities have almost been completed for part of the team, including the 400m runners in both sections, to travel to Muscat within the next two days?

Joseph Abraham once again showed that he was the man to beat in the one-lap race, finishing first in 47.12 seconds. T. Aboobacker (47.13) and Bhupinder Singh (47.52) came behind him while K.M. Binu who skipped the final in Chennai, took the fourth place in 47.70s.