NEW DELHI: Depleted fields and empty lanes greeted those who took the trouble of watching the opening day's action in the Combined Events Nationals at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

The appalling lack of interest on the part of the athletes left the meet with just a handful of entries in various sections.

A total of 36 athletes started and by the end of the first day, three of them had dropped out.

It was shocking to see just one woman compete in the women's section in heptathlon and one more in the under-18 girls' section. There was not a single entry in the women's under-20 group.

The men's decathlon should have had National record-holder Jora Singh as one of the prime contenders. But he did not start, leaving the field for P.J. Vinod to dominate.

The Kerala athlete, out of camp and practice after having taken up State Government employment recently, was not at his best and yet managed a first-day tally of 3597.

That happened to be 665 points clear of his nearest rival, N. Rajaservai of Tamil Nadu.

Five men started the decathlon, but by late evening, two of them, Ram Niwas of Haryana and Mandeep Kumar of Andhra, had dropped out. Ram Niwas had a `no mark' against his name in shot put.

Vinod, not hundred per cent fit and yet a cut above the rest in a depleted field, had a 11.22 for the 100 metres (812 points), 7.18m in long jump (857), 11.75 in shot put (591) 1.85m in high jump (670) and 53.34s in 400m (667). He was way off his best in all events.

The lone woman in the open section, N. Leelavathy of Tamil Nadu, compiled a first-day aggregate of 2604 points.

In comparison, the lone competitor in the girls' under-18 section, defending champion Natasha Sagar of Karnataka had 2688 points.

The top three women, Soma Biswas and Susmita Singha Roy of Bengal and J.J. Shobha of Andhra stayed away from the meet.

Nothing illustrated the lack of interest in the meet more than the sight of the contestants being forced to take the start in the 400 metres amidst blaring music through the PA system even as the runners strained to hear the starter's commands.

One wondered whether the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had forced this meet on a bunch of reluctant athletes or whether it had come at the wrong time for those aspiring to make it to the Doha Asian Games in December.

The results:

First day's placings:

Decathlon: Men: 1. P.J. Vinod (Ker) 3597 pts, 2. N. Rajaservai (TN) 2932, 3. Gulam Rabbani Ansari (Mah) 2124; Under-20: 1. Asho Kumar (Del) 2952, 2. Satish (Har) 2923, 3. V. Balamurali (TN) 2890.

Boys: Under-16, Pentathlon: 1. B. Azarudeen (TN) 1899, 2. T. Balakrishna Reddy (AP) 1680, 3. B. Bhaskar (AP) 1606.

Boys' under-18, Octathlon: 1. Prakash Varma (Del) 2493, 2. S. Rajakumar (TN) 2448, 3. G. Rajesh (AP) 2283.

Heptathlon: Women: 1. N. Leelavathy (TN) 2604.

Girls' Under-18: Natasha Sagar (Kar) 2688. Under-16, pentathlon: 1. G.M. Aishwarya (Kar) 1751, 2. K. Anandhi (TN) 1690, 3. Bharti (UP) 1242.

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