The Hindu : Sport : Jharkhand, Kerala claim titles

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Sport

Jharkhand, Kerala claim titles

Kirti Patil

Hari Shankar Roy sets record

BHOPAL: National record-holder Hari Shankar Roy attempted to rewrite his own mark set in Singapore in 2004, but settled for a new meet record in the men’s high jump, on a day when long-distance favourite Preeja Sreedharan could bag only silver in the women’s 10,000m, at the National inter-state athletics championship here on Thursday.

Roy claimed the fifth gold medal for Jharkhand in the men’s section to help his State tie with Kerala. Later in the day, Jharkhand’s 4x100m relay team won silver to pull away from the defending champion and snatch the team championship.

No contest

In the men’s high jump, as Roy hardly faced any contest, he decided to challenge his own mark. He first cleared 2.14 metres and then broke his own meet record of 2.14 set in 2004 when he went over 2.22m. Roy then charged his National record of 2.25, but failed to clear the height in his three tries.

In the morning session, Preeja found her name missing from the entries for the women’s 10,000m run. Preeja, the Asian championship silver medallist, was apparently, pulled out by Jharkhand to avoid the penalty imposed by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) with regard to dual entries. She was entered by both Kerala and Jharkhand in 5000m, but was forced to run for Kerala two days ago. Kerala, however, had not entered her for 10,000m, leading to the faux pas.

After much deliberation technical officials allowed her to run. But in the actual race, Maharashtra’s Kavita Raut bested Preeja at the finish line and set a new meet record of 34 minutes 23.80 seconds. Preeja also bettered the previous record of 34:30.20 held by L. Aruna Devi, finishing with 34:24.57.

Double for Surender

Uttarakhand’s Surender Singh completed a long-distance double as he comfortably won the men’s 10000m run with a timing of 29:06.17. That was again a new meet record, bettering 14-year-old Delhi’s Madan Singh’s mark of 29:26.00.

Despite a few top athletes shifting allegiance, Kerala women grabbed the team championship with an overwhelming lead. Kerala won six gold medals as against just one by Jharkhand.

Kerala also walked away with the ‘best athlete’ awards with middle-distance runners, C. Hamza (men) and O. P. Jaisha (women) taking the honours.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. B. G. Nagraj (Jhar) 21.51s, 2. S. Arunjith (Ker) 21.53, 3. Ajay Kumar (Har) 21.69. 10,000m: 1. Surender Singh (Utr) 29:06.17 NMR (old 29:26.00), 2. Kashinath Aswale (Jhar) 29:42.23, 3. Sandeep Batham (Del) 30:08.04. 400m hurdles: 1. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 51.03s, 2. Patlavath Shankar (AP) 51.47, 3. Shejil Verghese (Ker) 51.91. High jump: 1. Hari Shankar Roy (Jhar) 2.22m NMR (old 2.18), 2. Vinodkumar Chahan (Guj) 2.14, 3. B. Elangumaran (TN) 2.11. Discus: 1. Simarjit Singh (Pun) 49.60m, 2. Amardeep Singh (Pun) 49.35, 3. Rambir (Jhar) 48.94. 4x100m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu 41.70s, 2. Jharkhand 41.71, 3. Kerala 41.78. 4x400m relay: 1. Chhattisgarh 3:15.98, 2. Uttar Pradesh 3:16.12, 3. Tamil Nadu 3:16.38. Decathlon: 1. P. J. Vinod (Ker) 6833 pts, 2. Bhupendra Singh (Jhar) 6618, 3. Vinoth Kumar (Del) 6241.

Women: 200m: 1. K. Kasthuri (TN) 25.10s, 2. Ranjita Roy (Ben) 25.11, 3. B. Bindhu (Ker) 25.39. 10,000m: 1. Kavita Raut (Mah) 34:23.80 NMR (old 34:30.20), 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 34:24.57, 3. Preethi Rao (Jhar) 37:16.10. 3000m steeplechase: 1. Kiran Tiwari (Utr) 11:36.68, 2. Geeta Rani (Del) 11:40.47. 400m hurdles: 1. Pooja Jhakhar (Del) 1:01.11, 2. Sutapa Das (Ben) 1:01.97, 3. Shalin Joseph (Ker) 1:02.17. Long jump: 1. M. A. Prajusha (Ker) 6.22m, 2. Resmi Bose (Ker) 6.18, 3. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 6.14. Shot put: 1. Saroj Sihag (Har) 15.24m, 2. Seema Antil (Har) 14.44, 3. Neelam (Har) 13.16. 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:46.04, 2. Jharkhand 3:51.65, 3. Bengal 4:02.20.

Team championship: Men: 1. Jharkhand, 2. Kerala. Women: 1. Kerala, 2. Jharkhand.

Best athlete: Men: C. Hamza (Ker, 1500m) 1101 pts. Women: O. P. Jaisha (Ker, 1500m) 1082 pts.

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