The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Anju disappoints, but makes final

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Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Anju disappoints, but makes final

Melbourne: Anju Bobby George came up with a below par performance and barely managed to qualify for the long jump final at the Commonwealth Games here on Wednesday. Anju reached the final with a disappointing 6.41m.

Anju, who claimed a bronze in the 2002 edition at Manchester, cleared the distance in her third attempt. This put her second in the group and sixth overall. Since only three athletes were able to cross the benchmark of 6.50m, the 12 best performers gained entry into the final slated for Friday.

The top qualifier was Bronwyn Thompson, who loves this stadium as she achieved her personal best of 7m here in 2002. Bronwyn took just one jump of 6.71m, earning her an automatic berth. The other athletes to book a place in the final were Jade Johnson of England (6.52m) and Jamaican Elva Goulbourne, the defending champion, who touched 6.55m.

In the men's 800m heats, Ghamanda Ram finished fourth, clocking 1:48.03s, and failed to qualify for the final.

In the women's 800m, Pinky Parmanik sneaked into the semifinals with a timing of 2m 05.18s, while the three Indian girls in heptathlon could not lift themselves up and were at the bottom of the table.

At the end of five events, J.J. Shobha was ninth (4050 points), Soma Biswas 10th (4019) and Sushmita Singha Roy was 12th and last.

Bronze for Jayaseelan

Ranjith Jayaseelan earned a bronze medal for India in men's discus for Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD). The 21-year-old Jayaseelan threw the discus to 29.88m in his fourth try, his best for the day. It was way below his personal best of 36 metres achieved last year, but it was enough for third place. The top spot went went to Jamaica's Tanto Campbell (34.48m).

In the EAD category, Girraj qualified for the 200m final. — UNI

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