Date:18/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/18/stories/2007091861632000.htm

Sport

Surender sets new 5000m record

Principal Correspondent

BHOPAL: Surender Singh of Uttarakhand posted the first meet record at the 47th National inter-State athletics championship when he won the men’s 5000m run ahead of Jharkhand runners at the Tatya Tope Stadium here on Monday.

Surender Singh paced his run with teammate Pritam Kumar Bind under perfect weather this morning to clock 13:55.71 seconds. He bettered his own mark of 13:59.46, which was set last year in Chennai.

Kashinath Aswale came second, timing 14:05.76 while Surender’s main challenger, Sunil Kumar, finished third. In the women’s 5000m, Kerala’s O.P. Jaisha pushed the favourite Preeja Sreedharan to second place to announce her comeback after the Doha Asian Games. Jaisha won the gold after leading the run all the way from the start, clocking 16:21.06 seconds and was more than four seconds ahead of Preeja (16:25.31), who was to represent Jharkhand but failed to produce an NOC from Kerala. Maharashtra’s Kavita Raut was third at 16:27.77. Seema Antil’s poor form, which forced her to skip the Asian championship in Amman and withdraw from the Osaka World championships, continued. Seema heaved the disc to 52.08m in her first attempt but then she had three foul throws and failed to get past the mark she reached in the opening try.

As Seema failed to get beyond 52.08, her teammate, Saroj Sihag, who started with 49.11, won the women’s discus gold with a throw of 52.37m achieved in the fourth attempt.

In the absence of Asian shot put champion Navpreet Singh, Delhi’s Saurabh Vij was an overwhelming favourite. But Vij opened with three foul throws and bowed out. Jharkhand’s Satendra Kumar clinched the gold with a throw of 17.94 metres.

The results: Men: 5000m: 1. Surender Singh (Utr) 13:55.71 NMR (old 13:59.46), 2. Kashinath Aswale (Jhar) 14:05.76, 3. Sunil Kumar (Jhar) 14:14.34. Shotput: 1. Satendra Kumar (Jhar) 17.94m, 2. Om Prakash (Har) 17.83, 3. Amit Tyagi (Guj) 16.30.

Women: 5000m: 1. O.P. Jaisha (Ker) 16:21.06, 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 16:25.31, 3. Kavita Raut (Mah) 16:27.77. High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Jhar) 1.79m, 2. Maryan C. Thariyan (Del) 1.76, 3. Kavya Muthanna (Kar) 1.70. D iscus: 1. Saroj Sihag (Har) 52.37m, 2. Seema Antil (Har) 52.08, 3. Baljit Kaur (Pun) 46.93.