Sport - Athletics

Below-par performances again

— Photo: A.M. Faruqui

THE FASTEST: H.M. Jyothi (centre) did well to win the 100m, ahead of Mandeep Kaur and K. Sowjanya.

BHOPAL: On a day of below-par performances, Kavita Raut scored a surprise victory over Preeja Sreedharan in the women’s 5000m, in the Federation Cup athletics championships here on Tuesday.

Having tucked herself behind Preeja on the ‘bell’, Kavita kept at her heels through the last lap, eventually beating her over the finishing straight with a turn of speed that surprised her rival.

The 23-year-old Kavita, from Nadia in Bengal but representing Maharashtra here, had beaten Preeja in the 10,000m, in the inter-State meet here last September.

The timings were mediocre on this warm opening day — 16:48.37 for Kavita and 16:48.69 for Preeja. The Olympics qualification mark stood at an imposing 15:24.00.

Preeja said that the crowded schedule through the last 12 days, from the Asian indoor championships in Doha, possibly affected her performance, though it must be said that Kavita too had gone through the same grind.

If Olympics qualification was on everyone’s mind, there were no matching performances. Predictably, no one came close even.

Triple jumper Amarjeet Singh was down to 16.19 metres from his 16.30m at Patiala, with Bibu Mathew further down at 15.74 for the silver.

Amarjeet said that a change in runway approach had bogged him down. “I should do better in the next meet,” said the Punjab man. He should be aiming for 17.10 if he has to join Renjith Maheswary in the squad to Beijing.

There was never any doubt about Surendra Singh winning the men’s 5000m, but the question was about his timing. Hitting the front with four laps to go, Surendra coasted through to a 14:16.18 victory, followed by Sandeep Kumar Batham and Santosh Kumar Patel. The Olympics qualification mark is 13:28.00.

Susmita Singha Roy was in the lead half-way through the heptathlon with 3423 points.

If she is able to overcome her bogey event, javelin, on Wednesday, she could be eyeing the Olympics standard of 5800 points. Soma Biswas (3320), coming back after marriage, and J.J. Shobha (3227) were lying second and third.

The husband-wife duo of B.G. Nagaraj and Sahana Kumari had cause for celebration. Nagaraj claimed the men’s 100m and Sahana the women’s high jump.

Nagaraj’s 10.70s was in keeping with the trend set by the sprinters in recent times. No one has dipped below 10.40s since Anil Kumar clocked 10.30 for the National record in 2005.

Sahana’s 1.81m was an improvement of one centimetre over her Patiala performance. She has to aim for 1.91m for Olympics qualification.

The top three cracked 12 seconds in the women’s 100 metres with H. M. Jyothi winning in 11.89 seconds.

A notable absentee was Poonam Tomar.

Anuradha Biswal won the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.75, but was disqualified for not reporting for the 100m heats earlier. Poonam Bojanna was the beneficiary in the hurdles. Many felt that the Orissa woman should have been stopped before competing in the hurdles rather than disqualifying her for a “no show” in a morning heat.

The results: Men: 100m: 1. B.G. Nagaraj (Jkd) 10.70, 2. Jamaluddin (Ka) 10.81, 3. Ritesh Anand (Jkd) 10.87; 5000m: 1. Surendra Singh (ASCB) 14:16.18, 2. Sandeep Kumar Batham (Jkd) 14:23.79, 3. Santosh Kumar Patel (Jkd) 14:24.74; Triple jump: 1. Amarjeet Singh (Jkd) 16.19, 2. Bibu Mathew (Navy) 15.74, 3. Malkiat Singh (Pun) 15.53; Hammer: 1. Shahnawaz Khan (UP) 59.64, 2. Madhu Kumar (Har) 59.11, 3. Jitender Singh (CRPF) 58.22.

Women: 100m: 1. H. M. Jyothi (AP) 11.89, 2. Mandeep Kaur (Pun) 11.93, 3. K. Sowjanya (AP) 11.98; 5000m: 1. Kavita Raut (Mah) 16:48.37, 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Jkd) 16:48.69, 3. Preethi L. Rao (TN) 18:29.29; 100m hurdles: 1. Poonam Bojanna (Jkd) 14.13, 2. Shreema Priyadarshini (Kar) 14.22; 3. P. Lakshmi (TN)14.91; High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Jkd) 1.81, 2. Siji N. K. (Ker) 1.70, 3. Mallika Mondal (Ben) 1.65.

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