The Hindu : Sport : Anju less than impressive; yet wins

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Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Anju less than impressive; yet wins

S.R. Suryanarayan

— Photo: R. Ragu

WINNING LEAP: Anju B. George had an encouraging start but eventually just did enough to win.

CHENNAI: All eyes were on Anju Bobby George. The ace long jumper raises expectation each time she competes. But barring creating a new meet mark (6.53m) with her second jump, Anju did not go any further on the opening day of the national inter-state senior athletics championship at the floodlit Nehru stadium on Thursday.

As it turned out, Anju started with 6.47m to promise much. The nod to Bobby George in the gallery suggested that there was hope of something better. Her best this season has been the 6.54m in the Melbourne Commonwealth games. But after the 6.53m next — which incidentally was also the mark that had fetched her the gold in the Busan Asiad — Anju stuttered. She reached 6.37m in her third jump and then seemed to fall apart.

She fouled the next three attempts, clearly showing signs of discomfort in her left knee. "That pain was nothing new," she was to tell later and also that she was happy with her effort overall.

" I had aimed for 6.60m but found the run-up to the pit too poor to provide me the rhythm," Anju summed up her show, that saw her coming out the best of the lot, erasing Pramila's mark of 6.53m (in 2000) in the process.

Mixed bag

If the hope was for the various Asian Games aspirants to touch new levels, then it was a mixed bag. For sheer grit Sinimole Paulose needs mention for winning the 1500m with a new meet record.

Having already qualified for the Doha Games, Sinimole showed she was readying for the occasion in style. S. Shanthi, who followed her, also bettered the existing time.

Equally determined was C. Hamza's gold medal finish in the men's 1500 m. Clocking 3:42.37 seconds, he is still outside the qualifying mark by around two seconds. But as Coach Suresh Babu said on his performance, "all is not over. The committee will decide."

For someone who had missed much of the season, record holder K.M. Binu, just back from the after-effects of appendicitis, ran the 400m heats at AFI's suggestion and did well to top the day's timings, even if way down his best. "But I will not run the final. I had only done a trial run," he said and seemed happy.

The results: Men: 1500m: 1. C. Hamza (Ker) 3:42.37s; 2. Sandeep (Har) 3:50.86s; 3. Ravinder (Del) 3:53.64s; Shot put: 1.Navpreet Singh (Pun) 18.93m; 2. Kuldeep Mann (Del) 18.18m; 3. Satyendra K. Singh (UP) 18.09m.

Women: 1500m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (Jharkand) 4:10.51s (NMR, prev Sunita Rani 4:12.40, 1999); 2. S. Shanthi (TN) 4:11.66 (BMR); 3. O.P. Jaisha (Ker) 4:15.97; Hammer throw: 1. Hardeep Kaur (Pun) 60.79m (NMR, prev K. Jobeshwari Devi (WB) 58.36 mts, 2000); 2. Archana Bara (Bih) 54.13m; 3. Phoolwati (Del) 52.51m.; Long jump: 1. Anju Bobby George (TN) 6.53m;2. G.G. Pramila (Kar) 6.26m; 3. J.J. Shobha (AP) 6.12m.

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