The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Sourabh Vij finishes seventh in shot put

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 20, 2006

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Sourabh Vij finishes seventh in shot put

BEIJING: Despite a good effort of 19.75 metres, Sourabh Vij could finish no better than seventh in the men's shot put final of the World junior athletics championships here on Saturday.

Estonian Margus Hunt, a rank outsider who had earlier won the discus title with a world record 67.32 metres, added the shot put title with a world junior leading mark of 20.53 metres. Egyptian Mostafa Abdul El-Moaty took the silver with 20.14 while Chinese Guo Yanxiang won the bronze with 19.97.

Vij, who opened with 19.75 could not better that mark in subsequent rounds. The Delhi athlete had 19.58, foul, 19.33, foul and 18.99 in the rest of the series.

Hunt whose previous best in shot put was 18.95, went ahead in the fourth round with a stunning 20.17 and extended his lead further in the next round with his winning put of 20.53m.

American John Hickey, with a personal best 19.86, Kuwaiti Mohammad Mashari, with a national junior record 19.79, and Cuban Carlos Veliz (19.76) finished ahead of Vij, whose 20.35m at Chennai in June has been this season's world-leading mark till Saturday. He had won the silver in the Asian junior championships with 19.62 metres.

Relay team last

The Indian women's 4x400m relay team finished last among 14 teams in the heats on Saturday. The team of Sini Jose, Anu Mariam Jose, Priyanka Pawar and M.R. Poovamma clocked 3:45.42 while finishing seventh in heat 1. Nigeria won the heat with an African junior record of 3:33.00. The U.S. won the other heat in 3:34.83.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport