The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Trials provide nothing new

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Sunday, Nov 12, 2006
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Trials provide nothing new

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The additional trials to pick the athletics team for the Asian Games began at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday but they provided no fresh clue to the selectors in their task.

Two of the aspirants, woman pole vaulter V.S. Sureka and hammer thrower Hardeep Kaur complained that they were told to perform at a short notice. The two events were late additions to the re-trials.

Narrow miss

Sureka, who is in search of a suitable fibreglass pole for the past six months and more, cleared 4.00 metres and failed thrice, including a narrow miss, at 4.10 metres, which is the third-place qualifying norm. The fourth-place norm that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) plans to apply in many of the events, happens to be 4.05 metres. Sureka had cleared 4.08m at Patiala on Oct. 23.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI) had been in the process of importing a pole for Sureka for a few months, but very little seems to have moved, leaving the Chennai-based Railway athlete with no option but to place an order for a new pole at her own cost.

Hardeep Kaur managed only 58.82 metres in hammer as against her 60.79m in the inter-State meet and 61.25m in the Circuit meet at Patiala. The third-place selection criterion stands at 62.62m; fourth place 59.66. The sprint relay teams, running in a `mixed race', also clocked below par, with the men's team of B.G. Nagraj, Vishal Saxena, Vilas Neelgund and A. Aravind timing 40.01 secs. The women's team of H. M. Jyothi, Nidhi Singh, Deepthi Jose and Poonam Tomar clocked 45.53s. The men's team had come in 39.79s in Chennai.

Season best

In the individual races earlier, Poonam clocked a season best 11.69s with Jyothi coming second in 11.89s and Deepthi third in 12.01. Pramila Aiyappa, given a special entry in the trials, came sixth in 12.37s. In the men's sprint, B. G. Nagraj upset his better-rated rivals clocking 10.50 secs. Neelgund (10.54). Vilas Neelgund (10.54) and national champion A. Aravind (10.55) followed Nagraj.

Though the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has not announced the criteria, the fourth-place norms in men and women's sprint relays happen to be 39.36s and 44.59s respectively.

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