The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : National cross-country championship to be held today

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

National cross-country championship to be held today

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLAR, FEB. 5. After nearly three decades, the National cross-country championship returns to Karnataka. The 39th edition of the event will be held here on Sunday. The meet, which will act as selection trials for the World cross-country run to be held in France on March 19 and 20, has evoked a good response.

Leading runners from all over the country, especially from Services and Railways, will be vying for the honours. Some of the key contenders are Arun D'Souza, Shivananda, Lone, Aman Saini, Pooran Chand among men and B.L. Bharathi, Manjula, Aruna Devi, Reena Das, Paramjit Kaur and Sangini Devi in the women's section.

Services won the overall title last time and Railways, which has fielded a strong squad, seems determined to wrest the honours at Kolar.

About 480 runners are in fray in all the six sections, which includes men's 12 and 4 kms, women's 8 and 4 kms, under-21 boys' 8 km and under 21 girls' 6 kms.

The gruelling route for the men's long run (12 km), which starts from the Sir M. Viswesvaraiah Stadium, will feature several segments where the runners will have to negotiate rough terrain. The women's event will be flagged off from the Moorandally Gate and the men's 4 km starts from Mahalakshmi Layout. All the races will end at the Sri M. Viswesvaraiah Stadium.

Karnataka's hopes rest on Manjula, who made it one-horse affair in the state meet held at Chikamagalur few weeks ago. That Kolar is hosting the this meet, is truly significant as this part of Karnataka has produced several top long distance runners like Narayanaswamy, Venkateshappa, Nagesh, Usha and K.G. Sashikala. The district administration of Kolar has pulled all stops to make the meet a memorable one for everyone.

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