The Hindu : Shobha sets National record, qualifies for Olympics

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Shobha sets National record, qualifies for Olympics

By K.P. Mohan

J.J. Shobha, who set a National record in women's heptathlon. — Photo: V. Sudershan.

NEW DELHI, MARCH 17. J.J. Shobha erased a National record on Wednesday. More importantly, the 25-year-old Andhra woman achieved the heptathlon qualification standard for the Athens Olympics.

The second day of the BSNL-sponsored Federation Cup athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here also produced a string of good timings in the women's 400 metres, headed by Rajwinder Kaur's 52.31. The Punjab woman was just one-hundredth of a second shy of the Olympic qualification norm.

Behind Rajwinder, Manjit Kaur and S. Geetha clocked sub-53s while Chitra Soman, Pinky Parmanik, Sagardeep Kaur and Kalpana Reddy came within the 54.00 bracket, something that should please the coaches in the context of Olympics qualification. Of course, these are early days yet.

Shobha looked to have carried her good form from the Afro-Asian Games at Hyderabad last October, when she claimed the gold, to this season-opener. She had six personal bests in the seven events, only javelin escaping her assault that culminated in a tally of 6211 points.

The Olympics standard stood at 5900 points that the second-placed Pramila Aiyappa (5911) also crossed, but for two athletes to be eligible to compete at Athens both have to be in the 6050 league. Pramila, bitterly disappointed after a 37.38 in javelin pulled her down in the drive towards the 6,100-point mark, eventually consoled herself by noting that her cumulative points tally was her best in three years. She had battled back from illness last year to make it to the Manila Asian championships. She will have to now wait for the Inter-State in July to have another attempt at Olympics qualification.

Understandably, Shobha was pleased with her performance and said that she would be aiming for 6,500 points. She said that her endurance training had gone off well since December and she was able to improve well in the 200 metres, 800 metres and the hurdles. She did exceedingly well in long jump, too.

Shobha's PBs were (previous bests in parenthesis): 100m hurdles-13.71 (13.76), high jump-1.69 (1.65), shot put-12.52 (12.40), 200m-23.53 (24.07), long jump-6.50 (6.23) and 800m-2:16.40 (2:19.00). Barring the 800m, all her previous bests had come at the Hyderabad Afro-Asian Games.

The men's sprint relay team, hoping to get into the top-16 bracket in the world, had its first crack at Olympics qualification, but came well short of expected standards. A botched exchange on the anchor between Piyush Kumar and Jayachandran saw the team clocking 40.29s. The other two in the quartet were Vilas Nilgund and Sandeep Sarkaria. The foursome should be aiming close to 39.00s or better if the team has to be in with a chance to make it to Athens. Of course, the AAFI team was far ahead of the rest of the field on Wednesday.

It should be getting a few more chances including the SAF Games at Islamabad and should improve, though the team will be without the National record holder, Anil Kumar who had shifted his focus towards the 400 metres, apart from retaining his interest in the longer dash.

The results:

Men: 400m: 1. K.J. Manojlal (Ker) 47.03s, 2. Satbir Singh (Army) 47.38, 3. P. Shankar (ONGC) 47.64; 5000m: 1. Sunil Kumar (Har) 14:48.94, 2. Deep Chand (Army) 14:53.10, 3. Aman Saini (Punjab Police) 14:57.90; 110m hurdles: 1. Krishna Mohan (Army) 14.58s, 2. E. Muthuswamy (TN) 14.96, 3. Harish Kushalappa (Kar) 14.99; High jump: 1. Omveer Singh (Raj) 2.09m, 2. Balraj Singh (Punjab Police) 2.09, 3. K.R. Roshan (Ker) 2.09; Discus: 1. Hridayanand Singh (UP) 54.47m, 2. Sukhbir Singh (Punjab Police) 53.40, 3. Davinder Singh (Punjab Police) 52.86; Hammer: 1. Rakesh Kumar (UP) 64.71m, 2. Harpal Singh (Punjab Police) 62.21, 3. Madhu Kumar (Har) 61.11; Decathlon: 1. Jora Singh (BSF) 6758 pts, 2. P. J. Victor (TN) 6623, 3. Chandrasekhar (TN) 5891; 4x100m relay: 1. AAFI 40.29, 2. Army 41.02, 3. Tamil Nadu 41.37.

Women: 400m: 1. Rajwinder Kaur (Punjab Police) 52.31s, 2. Manjit Kaur (Punjab Police) 52.65, 3. S. Geetha (AP) 52.67; 5000m: 1. Madhuri Gurnule (Mah) 17:05.25, 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 17:32.15, 3. Banta Kaur (Punjab Police) 17:48.96; 3000m steeplechase: 1. L. Manjula (Kar) 10:52.12 (National record, old 11:05.67), 2. S. Shanthi (TN) 11:12.28, 3. Jaswinder Kaur (Pun) 11:20.69; 100m hurdles: 1. Soma Biswas (Ben) 13.91. Long jump: 1. Jetty C. Joseph (Ker) 6.25m, 2. Pooja (Har) 5.88, 3. Ruta Patkar (Jha) 5.88; Heptathlon: 1. J.J. Shobha (AP) 6211 pts (National record, old 6186), 2. Pramila Aiyappa (Kar) 5911, 3. Anju Paulose (Ker) 4927; 20km walk: 1. Jasmine Kaur (Punjab Police) 1:47:47.00, 2. Amandeep Kaur (Pun) 1:48:52.06, 3. Sandeep Kaur (Punjab Police) 2:05:01.10; 4x100m relay: 1. Andhra Pradesh 47.50, 2. Bengal 48.02, 3. Tamil Nadu 48.13.

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