GOLDEN LEAP: Alex Thomas of Services was at his best while taking the triple jump gold.

GUWAHATI: The city was blessed with brilliant sunshine all day long after Wednesday's unexpected thunderstorm. And Kerala athletes came up with a fine show to pick up five out of the 13 gold medals that were decided on the final day of the athletic events of the 33rd National Games on Thursday.

It was thus a fitting finale on Thursday for the five-day event at the Indira Gandhi stadium, Sarasujai, as the day also witnessed three new meet records being established.

However, more than those who came up with the new benchmarks in their respective events, it was Preeja Sreedharan (Kerala) who emerged as the star performer of the day by bagging the women's 5000m gold and thereby completing an individual golden treble.

The 25-year-old National record holder in the 10,000m came home in 17:01.79. She was in the lead right from the start-to-finish though Jharkhand's Preeti L. Rao and Maharashtra's Madhuri Gurnule did try to get past Preeja with just 200m left for the finish. But, the international hailing from Idukki was not to be conquered as she tore away from her rivals immediately as if she had anticipated such an attack on her supremacy.

Madhuri eventually finished with silver ahead of Preeti, overtaking the latter with just 20m left for the finish. Preeja, who had won the 1500m and 10000m gold medals on the opening day, was all smiles when she was asked about the Rs. 4.50 lakh purse that awaited her on her return to Kerala.

"Yes, the Kerala Government has always been supportive to sportspersons, especially athletes. This is yet another example. I am very happy to have performed so well here though it would have been nice if I had been able to rewrite the meet record in the 10000m."

Gold for Vijila

Kerala won another gold in the women's section when A. Vijila won the 800m with a fine burst near the home stretch which caught her Bengal rivals, Sutapa Das and Jhuma Khatun napping. The inter-university champion was clocked at 2:11.77 for her creditable victory.

In the men's section, Kerala, however, suffered an unexpected reverse when international M. Renjith, the favourite, was pushed to the third spot by Services' athletes, Alex Thomas and Bibu Mathew in the triple jump. In the process of recording the upset win, Alex also rewrote the existing mark of 16.38m set by Amarjit Singh in Hyderabad. The new record of 16.45m, which he achieved this day, on his fourth attempt also is Alex's career best.

Another upset was in the 800m final where Sajeesh Joseph and R. Rajeev, both from Kerala, clearly outran C. Hamza (Services). Sunil Kumar (Jharkhand) held back the challenge from Surender (Services) and his own teammate Kashinath Aswale in the 5000m finishing with a new record time of 14:17.47, bettering Tara Singh's 1985-mark by a good four seconds. Aswale, the winner of the 10,000m gold, had to be satisfied with bronze even as Sunil finished with a new record time of 14:17.47, bettering Tara Singh's 1985-mark by a good four seconds.

Services holds sway

The other record of the day came in the gruelling marathon, which witnessed Services' athletes making a clean sweep. There was hardly any doubt of the final result right from the start before L. Benning led the sweep and reduced O. Oken Singh's 1999 mark to a thing of the past.

In the meanwhile, the jury of appeal, which met here this afternoon, decided in favour of the protest lodged by Assam over the results of the men's 20km walk held on Wednesday. Though this decision was contested by the Services team, the jury, after meeting for a second time, stood firm in confirming O. Sushil Kumar (Assam) as the winner of the event.

The results:

Men: 800m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph (Ker), 1:50.94, 2. R. Rajeev (Ker), 1:51.19, 3. C. Hamza (SSCB), 1:51.56; 5000m: 1. Sunil Kumar (Jkd), 14:17.47 (New Meet Record; Old Record - 14:21.60, Tara Singh, New Delhi, 1985), 2. Surender (SSCB), 14:17.93, 3. Kashinath Aswale (Jkd), 14:18.86 (BMR); Hammer throw: 1. Rakesh Singh (UP), 64.45m, 2. Nirbhay Singh (Pun), 60.97m, 3.

Talwinder Singh (Pun), 59.63m; Triple jump: 1. Alex Thomas (SSCB), 16.45m (NMR; OR - 16.38m, Amarjit Singh, Hyderabad, 2002), 2. Bibu Mathew (SSCB), 16.32m, 3. M. Renjith (Ker), 16.32m; 4 x 100m relay: 1. Kerala, 41.07s, 2. Tamil Nadu, 41.17s, 3. Andhra Pradesh, 41.31s; 4 x 400m relay: 1. Kerala, 3:12.01, 2. Punjab, 3:12.57, 3. Services, 3:12.91.

20km walk: 1. O. Sushil Kumar Singh (Asm), 1:31:32.73, 2. P.S. Jalan (SSCB), 1:31:27.73, 3. Gurmeet Singh (Asm), 1:31:40.79. Marathon: 1. L. Benning (SSCB), 2:17:32, (NMR; OR - 2:24:15, O. Oken Singh, Imphal, 1999), 2. Satya Prakash (SSCB), 2:20:38, 3. Vikram Singh (SSCB), 2:20:38.

Women: 800m: 1. A. Vijila (Ker), 2:11.77, 2. Sutapa Das (Ben), 2:13.14, 3. Jhuma Khatun (Ben), 2:14.21; 5000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker), 17:01.79, 2. Madhuri Gurnule (Mah), 17:02.20, 3. Preeti L. Rao (Jkd), 17:02.83. High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Jkd), 1.73m, 2. Kavya Muthanna (Kar), 1.70m, 3. Susmita Singha Roy (Ben), 1.70m. Discus throw: 1. Saroj Sihag (Har), 50.72m, 2. Priyanka Bhanot (Del), 42.75m, 3. Aplesh Yadav (Har), 38.71m. 4 x 100m relay: 1. Andhra Pradesh, 46.91s, 2. Kerala, 47.88s, 3. Bengal, 48.05s; 4 x 400m relay: 1. Andhra Pradesh, 3:44.76, 2. Kerala, 3:45.85, 3. Tamil Nadu, 3:47.74.

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