The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Deepmala sets National record

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Deepmala sets National record

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Deepmala Devi of the Railways set a National record in the 20km walk event in the inaugural National endurance meet here on Tuesday.

The Manipur girl clocked 1:39:29 to better Y. Bala Devi's 2003 mark of 1:43.06.03, clocked on track in Hyderabad. This was on road, but no separate road record was made available.

In a close finish, Punjab Police's Amandeep Kaur also came under the previous record while coming second in 1:40:45.

Coach Harmana Ram felt that a timing of around 1:40 could put either of the girls in contention at the Commonwealth Games. The first target this year for all the Indian athletes is selection to the team for Melbourne.

As action shifted to the Nehru Stadium in the afternoon, the focus was expectedly on Ghamanda Ram of the Army in the 800 metres. He ran from the front but had no one to push him on his final surge and had to be satisfied with a modest 1:48.93.

In the women's 1500 metres, O.P. Jaisha kicked hard on the straight to get the better of Sinimol Poulose who eventually finished third behind Preeja Sreedharan. Jaisha timed 4:17.92.

Close finish

Pritam Bind and C. Hamza tried to out-kick each other on the home straight with the former coming home in 3:46.90 and Hamza finishing just three-hundredth of a second behind in the men's 1500 metres.

With many of the regulars missing, not to speak of the thin fields, the competition was ordinary, though encouraging for the start of a new season. Nothing more could be read into the performances in the context of the Melbourne Games.

The results:

Men: 800m: 1. Ghamanda Ram (Army) 1:48.93, 2. Rajeev (Rly) 1:51.04, 3. Amit Mishra (Tata Academy) 1:52.72; 1500m: 1. Pritam Bind (ONGC) 3:46.90, 2. C. Hamza (Ser) 3:46.93, 3. Ravinder Kumar (Del) 3:57.39; 5000m: 1. Sita Ram (Army) 14:33.32, 2. R.B. Subba (BSF) 14:45.98, 3. Manoj Kumar (Raj) 15:10.06; 20km walk: 1. P.S. Jalan (Army) 1:27:39, 2. Gurmeet Singh (P.Police) 1:27:41, 3. Sandeep Sangwan (Har) 1:38:21; 50km walk: 1. Sita Ram (Army) 4:37:58, 2. Satya Narayan (Army) 4:52:15, 3. Sanjay (Army) 5:03:19.

Women: 800m: 1. Sutapa Das (Rly) 2:11.35, 2. Rupinder Kaur (Rly) 2:14.58, 3. Ashwani (Tata Academy) 2:16.53; 1500m: 1. O.P. Jaisha (Rly) 4:17.92, 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 4:22.19, 3. Sinimol Poulose (Tata Academy) 4:22.66; 20km walk: 1. Deepmala Devi (Rly) 1:39:29 (National record, previous 1:43:06.03), 2. Amandeep Kaur (P. Police) 1:40:45, 3. Manju (Har) 2:09:01.

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