The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Shankar, Sathi Geeta are the best

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Thursday, Jul 07, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

Shankar, Sathi Geeta are the best

Avinash Nair

Tamil Nadu takes overall championship

BEST OF THE LOT: Sathi Geeta (left) and Shankar display their trophies. — Photo: G.P. Sampath Kumar

BANGALORE: Andhra Pradesh's Shankar Patlavath and Sathi Geeta were adjudged the best male and best female athletes of the Metlife 45th National inter-State senior athletics championship which concluded at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday evening.

Tamil Nadu was declared overall champion with a whopping 168 points. The girls contributed the bulk of the points tallying 126 to dethrone former girls team champion Kerala (70), which had to contend with third place behind West Bengal (81).

The men's team honours went to Kerala which pipped strong contender Punjab to the second place with 71 points, largely thanks to the 4x400 metres relay quartet which staved off a last stretch surge from Andhra Pradesh. Punjab finished with 64 points while Haryana was third with 59.

Second goal

S. Shanthi, the only National record breaker in this four-day meet, claimed her second gold with a superb surge in the last 50m to snatch the women's 800m gold from Geeta. Ghamanda Ram of Rajasthan lowered K.M. Binu's meet mark in the men's 800m with a start to finish effort in 1 minute 47.99 seconds. Tej Bali Yadav, who came second was disqualified, and Primesh moved up with Karnataka's J.M. Mathew declared third.

The windy conditions did not make it easy for the athletes, least of all the pole-vaulters in the morning. The event was put off from Tuesday due to rains, and Wednesday morning's winds proved a further deterrent. But young Gajanan Upadhyay of Uttar Pradesh braved the odds to clear 4.95m and win the gold with a new meet record. He lowered Vijay Pal Singh's 14-year-old mark of 4.91m.

The results: Men: 200m: 1. Anil Kumar (Ker) 21.00s, 2. Vilas Neelgund (Kar) 21.08s, 3. A. Aravind (TN) 21.11s; 800m: 1. Ghamanda Ram (Raj) 1:47.99s (NMR), 2. P.S. Primesh (Ker) 1:51.22s, 3. J.M. Mathew (Kar) 1:52.88s; 5,000m: 1. Sunil Kumar Singh (Har) 14:40.60s, 2. Kuldip Kumar (UP) 14:42.60s, 3. Sitaram (Mah) 14:43.80s; 400m hurdles: 1. Shankar Patlavath (AP) 50.97s, 2. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 51.81s, 3. Gurpreet Singh (Pun) 52.39s; Triple jump: 1. Renjith M. (Ker) 15.69m, 2. Bhupinder Singh (Pun) 15.62m, 3. K.C. Saintison (Ker) 15.62m; Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (UP) 4.95m (NMR), 2. R. Ranjith Kumar (TN) 4.80m, 3. Geesh Kumar (Ker) 4.70m; Javelin: 1. Kashinath Naik (Mah) 73.00m, 2. Om Narayan (Har) 72.44m, 3. Gurkirat Singh (Pun) 71.95m; Discus: 1. Amandeep Singh (Pun) 53.30m, 2. Harpreet Singh (Del) 52.22m, 3. Amritpal Singh (Pun) 52.16m; 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:11.77s, 2. Andhra Pradesh 3:11.8s, 3. Haryana 3:12.00s.

Team championship: 1. Kerala - 71 pts, 2. Punjab - 64 pts, 3. Haryana -59 pts. Best male athlete: Shankar P. (AP)

Women: 200m: 1. Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Pun) 23.72s, 2. Saradha Narayan (TN) 24.93s, 3. Ranjita Roy (WB) 25.08s; 800m: 1. S. Shanthi (TN) 2:07.76s, 2. Sathi Geeta (AP) 2:08.06s, 3. Sinimol Paulose (Jhar) 2:08.48s; 5,000m: 1. O.P. Jaisha (Ker) 17:53.97s, 2. Pampa Chanda (WB) 18:03.35s, 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 18:12.96s; 400m hurdles: 1. Chitra Soman (Jhar) 59.62s, 2. Pooja Jakhar (Del) 1:00.51s, 3. Vijayalakshmi (Kar) 1:00.54s; Triple jump: 1. K. Revathi (TN) 12.83m, 2. V.S. Libiya (Ker) 12.57m, 3. Tincy Philip (Ker) 12.32m; Discus: 1. Neelam J. Singh (Har) 57.52m, 2. Krishna Punia (Raj) 55.96m, 3. Archana Mondal (WB) 42.50m; 4x400m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu 3:47.7s, 2. AP 3:51.6s, 3. WB 3:51.8s; Heptathlon: 1. Sushmita Singha (WB) 5287 pts, 2. Rose Mary Anthony (Ker) 4147 pts, 3. V. Leelavathi (TN) 4123 pts.

Team championship: 1. Tamil Nadu - 126 pts, 2. West Bengal - 81 pts, 3. Kerala 70 pts.

Best female athlete: Geeta Sathi (AP).

Overall champion: Tamil Nadu 168 pts, 2. Kerala 141 pts, 3. Punjab 103 pts.

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