The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Chetana Solanki wins pole vault

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 04, 2005

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Chetana Solanki wins pole vault

Avinash Nair

BANGALORE: The focus of the opening day's schedule in the 45th National inter-State senior athletics championship was on the women's pole vault. The tussle between Uttar Pradesh's Chetna Solanki and Tamil Nadu's V.S. Surekha, however, turned out to be a damp squib, with both jumpers managing a poor 3.50m at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Sunday. Chetana was adjudged as winner taking average performance in their attempts.

It nevertheless equalled the meet mark set by Chetna last year at this very same venue last season. She had a reasonably good run coming into this championship with a series of 3.70m plus jumps. The contest proved to be anything but keen.

While Chetna pointed to the `windy conditions', Surekha blamed herself and her lack of preparation. "I just did not give it my best... everything went `phut'," said the TN girl.

The two rivals were training partners under P.C. Tyagi at Delhi. But they have now been split thanks to the whims of the federation. While Chetna continues to train under Tyagi, Surekha has been shifted to Patiala to train with a Russian coach. "I am not happy there," admitted Surekha.

No glamour

The 100m heats too were shorn of glamour. While Poonam Tomar pulled out of the event citing `weariness' and the need to preserve herself for the ATF championship in South Korea in September, the men's event was without P. Anil Kumar, the National champion, as the Federation officials asked him to run the 400m instead.Anil Kumar, who was warming up for the 100m heats, was asked to run the one lap event and limped in a poor third in his heat at 48.63s and failed to qualify for the final.

Ghamanda Ram and Sunita Rani won the 1,500m men and women's races respectively, with a degree of ease, though both were way off the National and meet mark, by miles.

Earlier the meet was declared open by Shri Romi Malhotra, MG, Dell, with the usual traditional fanfare.

The results: Men: 1,500m: 1. Ghamanda Ram (Raj) 3:49.12s, 2. Pritam Kumar (Utt) 3:52.73s, 3. Sunil Kumar Singh (Har) 3:56.31s; 10,000m: 1. Kuldip Kumar (UP) 31:07.92s, 2. R.B. Subba (Del) 31:23.98s, 3. Surender Singh (Mah) 31:31.23s.

Women: 1,500m: 1. Sunita Rani (Pun) 4:25.13s, 2. S. Shanthi (TN) 4:31.08s, 3. O.P. Jaisha (Ker) 4:31.70s; 10,000m: 1. L. Aruna Devi (WB) 36:55.53s, 2. Pampa Chanda (WB) 38:22.99s, 3. Preethi L Rao (Kar) 38:47.37s; Pole vault: 1. Chetna Solanki (UP) 3.50m (EMR), 2. V.S. Surekha (TN) 3.50m (EMR), 3. Gitanjali Bora (Assam) 3.30m; Shot put: 1. Chaitali Paul (WB) 14.34m, 2. Archana Mondal (WB) 13.27m, 3. A. Anitcham (TN) 12.63m; Hammer throw: 1 Usma Daryan (UP) 55.73m, 2. Rajwinder Kaur (Pun) 54.75m, 3. Ritu Rani (UP) 53.39m.