Date:21/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/21/stories/2008122155341700.htm

Sport - Athletics

Mayookha Johny, Bineesh shatter records on opening day

Principal Correspondent

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

Making her mark: Kannur University’s Mayookha Johny broke the women’s long jump record on Saturday.

KOCHI: Mayookha Johny was in a bit of a hurry. The 20-year-old, the country’s most promising athlete, had twisted her right leg at a hotel here while climbing the stairs a couple of days ago. And since the Kannur University star was entered in both the long jump and triple jump events, her strategy at the 69th all-India inter-university athletics championship here on Saturday was to keep things simple.

“We will just do the first three jumps, do them well and leave out the rest,” said her Thalassery SAI coach Jose Mathew just before the long jump final at the Maharaja’s Stadium tonight.

Mayookha opened well, her first jump, 6.28m, easily shattered her own year-old meet record. It also helped her complete a hat-trick of triumphs in the long jump at the championship.

But the young girl, who looks good to take over from Anju George, was not happy. She had a personal best of 6.44m and the 6.28m effort today was not exactly the way she had hoped to finish things in the event here.

“I’m not getting much push from the board,” she said after her first three jumps. A minute later, Mayookha said that she would try out the other three attempts too. But though she went for two more attempts, her first jump remained the best.

Meanwhile, the rest of the field was way behind. With only four jumpers crossing the automatic qualifying mark of 5.50m, the organisers reduced the mark to 5.25 which saw seven others coming into the fray. Only two events were slated for the day but with both producing records, the spectators went home a happy lot.

Earlier, the host Mahatma Gandhi University’s Bineesh Jacob broke the two-year-old record in the men’s pole-vault and won an easy gold. It was the championship’s first gold and marked an impressive start to the host’s campaign.

With the rest of the field wilting away, the defending champion Bineesh, son of a farmer, was on his own after 4.50m. He next opted for 4.65m and then broke the record by a centimetre when he sailed over 4.76m in his first attempt. His team-mate V. V. Raneesh, who is now shifting focus to the decathlon, won the silver.

The results:

Men: Pole vault: 1. Bineesh Jacob (MGU) 4.76m NMR, OR N. Vadivelu, Annamalai University, 4.75, 2006; 2. V. V. Raneesh (MGU) 4.30m, 3. Mulayam Singh (Allahabad) 4.30m.