The Hindu : Sport : Joseph Abraham misses National mark by a whisker

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 02, 2006

Sport

Sport

Joseph Abraham misses National mark by a whisker

K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI: Joseph Abraham missed the National record that coach Rajinder Singh had forecast before the race by seven-hundredth of a second in the 400 metres hurdles on the second day of the Federation Cup athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

Abraham, who has made steady progress in the intermediate hurdles over the past two years, was engaged in a furious contest with former high hurdles record holder Gurpreet Singh and in the end the National record of 50.43 set by Sahib Singh in Calcutta in 1998, came under severe threat.

Abraham probably lost the chance for a record on the eighth hurdle, where he checked, but was ahead through the home bend.Despite a great effort over the final 40 metres, Gurpreet could not catch up. Abraham clocked 50.50s, while Gupreet had 50.81s.

Ghamanda, Pinki disappoint

The focus was on the 800 metres in both sections, but Ghamanda Ram and Pinki Paramanik could do nothing towards strengthening their qualification chances for the Commonwealth Games.

Ghamanda Ram, taken through the opening lap by a pacer in 51-second-plus, clocked 1:47.74, a shade poorer than his performance in the first circuit meet here (1:17.16), while Pinki, who had returned two timings of 2:03 in the meets here and at Patiala, could not come close to that and finished in 2:05.05.

The unofficial qualifying mark for the men's 800m is 1:46.79, while that in the women's it is 1:59.15. Both Ghamanda and Pinki are being considered as near certainties for Melbourne, but it is worth noting that last year when Ghamanda clocked a career-best 1:46.67, there were 30 runners from Commonwealth countries who had clocked better. And as for the women's 800 metres, 2:03.04 happened to be the poorest qualifier into the final at Manchester four years ago when the seventh-placed runner clocked 1:59.86.

Amarjeet's feat

Right at the end of the day's programme, Amarjeet Singh leaped to a personal best of 16.58 metres in triple jump to bring about cheer among the enthusiasts. This is by far the best that anyone has jumped since the days of Mohinder Singh Gill who holds the National record of 16.79 metres, set at Fresno, US, in 1971.

Amarjeet had reached a best of 16.44 in the inter-State meet in Chennai in 2004 when he was striving for the qualification mark for the Athens Olympics. In the Commonwealth Games context, the third-place qualification mark happens to be a distant 17.26 metres.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. P. Muthuswamy (TN) 21.81s, 2. Parameshwaran (Kar) 22.02, 3. S. Barna Das (TN) 22.02; 800m: 1. Ghamdna Ram (Army) 1:47.74 (NMR, previous 1:49.16), 2. Jaskaran Singh (Har) 1:52.40, 3. Satnam Singh (pun) 1:52.75; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Ram Bahadur Subba (BSF) 9:03.84, 2. Om Prakash (Army) 9:10.99, 3. Mahesh Kumar (MP) 9:11.18; 400m hurdles: 1. Joseph Abraham (CRPF) 50.50 (NMR, previous 51.24), 2. Gurpreet Singh (P. Pol) 50.81, 3. A. Jayashankar (TN) 52.82; Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Updhyaya (UP) 4.90m, 2. V. Shyju (Army) 4.60, 3. Pawan Kumar (Del) 4.60; Triple jump: 1. Amarjeet Singh (Pun) 16.58m (NMR, previous 16.29), 2. Sushant Bangera (Mah) 15.65, 3. S. K. Dwivedi (Army) 15.28; Discus: 1. Harpreet Singh (Del) 52.78m, 2. Vipendra Singh (UP) 51.20, 3. Jaiveer Singh (Raj) 50.62.

Women: 200m: 1. H. M. Jyothi (Kar) 24.27s, 2. Babita Singh (Mah) 24.56, 3. Rakhi Saha (Ben) 24.60; 800m: 1. Pinki Paramanik (Ben) 2:05.05, 2. Sutapa Das (Ben) 2:11.21, 3. B. Venkatalaxmi (AP) 2:11.74; 3000m steeplechase: 1. S. Shanthi (TN) 10:44.76 (NMR, previous 10:52.12), 2. K. Maheshwari (TN) 11:48.87, 3. Asha Rani (P. Pol) 11:49.17; 400m hurdles: 1. Shalini Joseph (Ker) 59.69s, 2. Harini Chandrasekhara (Kar) 59.86, 3. Pooja Jhakar (Del) 1:01.29; Hammer: 1. Archana Bara (Bih) 54.43m, 2. Ritu Rani (UP) 52.53, 3. Ushma Daryan (UP) 51.60.