The Hindu : Sport : Anisha Vijayan sets triple jump record

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

Sport

Sport

Anisha Vijayan sets triple jump record

K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI: On a day when off-the-field deliberations gained more importance than on-field action, Anisha K. Vijayan rose well above par to post a meet record in triple jump to stand out in the Federation Cup athletics meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday.

The topic of discussion centred more around the "missing athletes" and their fate rather than on the performances that were quite abysmal in general. None of the 17 suspended athletes figured in the proceedings; barring 400m hurdler P. Shankar, no one had an event scheduled.

Anisha's 13.57 metres in triple jump went almost unnoticed by the handful of spectators, comprising mainly athletes, officials and mediapersons as the day's proceedings went on predictable lines.

Anisha, the 24-year-old Kerala girl, representing Central Reserve Police Force, touched the record distance on her third attempt after having done 13.24 and 13.24 back to back as she started the competition.

Anisha had a 13.40 after that and then fouled her fifth attempt. "I missed Anju chechi's record by that narrow foul," she said later, referring to Anju George's National record of 13.61 metres. The meet record also happened to be in Anju's name, at 13.29, set in Chennai in 2002.

Incidentally, Anisha comes from the same Koruthodu stable of Thomas master that has given us Anju George. She had crossed 13 metres only last year and had a personal best of 13.31, recorded at the all India police meet here last November before improving upon that mark on Tuesday.

Manisha Dey of Bengal was second and Tessymol Joseph of Kerala third with 13.18 and 13.10 respectively in a keenly-fought competition that was the exception on a day of uninspiring contests.

Two or three athletes invariably lined up in the heats and more often than not someone pulled up just after making a start.

If there was an event that generated some interest in the stands, it was the women's pole vault where V. S. Sureka's anticipated assault on her national record of 3.90 metres came unstuck.

Sureka who had set a national mark of 3.90 metres at the first circuit meet here on Feb 15, could manage only 3.85 metres as she failed twice at 3.95 metres and gave up her third attempt.

Sureka said that the pole was slipping a little and she did not feel confident about going for the record height for a third time. She added that her new pole was expected to arrive on Wednesday.

The results: Men: 5000m: 1. Deep Chand (Army) 14:20.99, 2. Sudheer Kumar (Army) 14:21.37, 3. Santosh Kumar Patel (UP) 14:22.08; 110m hurdles: 1. R. Mathew (Navy) 14.63m, 2. P. Muthuswamy (TN) 14.85, 3. Sandeep Parmar (Mah) 14.98; Hammer: 1. Naresh Chaudhary (Del) 63.51, 2. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (UP) 63.37, 3. Harinder Singh (P. Pol) 62.10.

Women: 5000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 17:47.31, 2. Kavita Raut (Mah) 17:50.40, 3. Preeti L. Rao (Kar) 17:57.97; High jump: 1. Tessymol Joseph (Ker) 1.73m, 2. Sushmita Singha Roy (Ben) 1.73, 3. M. Sangeetha (TN) 1.65; Shot put: 1. Manpreet Kaur (Pun) 14.49m, 2. Chaitali Paul (Ben) 13.61, 3. Archana Mondal (Ben) 12.80; Pole vault: 1. V.S. Sureka (TN) 3.85m (NMR, prev. record 3.80), 2. Gitanjali Bora (Asm) 3.70, 3. Chetna Solanki (UP) 3.60; Triple jump: 1. Anisha K. Vijayan (CRPF) 13.57m (NMR, previous 13.29), 2. Manisha Dey (Ben) 13.18, 3. Tessymol Joseph (Ker) 13.10.