The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Bendict, Preeja Sreedharan set meet records

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Wednesday, Oct 24, 2007
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Sport - Athletics

Bendict, Preeja Sreedharan set meet records

S. Sabanayakan

Opening ceremony forces some events to be held in dark

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

JUMPING TO GLORY: Bendict Starley was in good form as he annexed the high jump title.

JAMSHEDPUR: There was enough drama to keep everybody busy on the first day of the four-day 47th Open National athletic championship at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

First the day produced two new meet records in the men’s high jump and women’s 10,000m run.

This was followed by the opening ceremony during the conduct of the meet that put back the other events of the day and some of the heats and the women’s long jump were held in near darkness.

Then the much-promised electronic gadgets failed to arrive on time and the track events were completed on hand-timing. But issue that took the cake was withholding of the men’s 1500m race result that saw another new meet mark.

Palakkad-based 25-year-old senior clerk with Southern Railway, Preeja Sreedharan, gave a rousing start to the meet with a new meet record in the women’s 10,000m race.

Running in a cool, early winter morning, she timed 33:25.0s to erase her own mark of 34:11.45s set at Delhi last year. Preeja, who set the National record of 33:19.71s during the Federation Cup at Kolkata this May, said she came here hoping to break her National mark but blamed early pace that was slow for her discomfiture.

Bendict Starley of Railways equalled his career best with a clearance of 2.19m in the men’s high jump after his teammate and favourite Hari Shankar Roy managed only 2.15m.

In fact, the 23-year-old managed to cross the bar in his third attempt. This erased Roy’s previous best of 2.18m set last year at Delhi. After jumping for joy, Starley tried to clear 2.22 but failed in all three attempts.

Former record holder and current Railway coach, N. Annavi, praised his ward’s strong temperament for the success. “He has to gain strength and needs to work on his run-up to go to places,” he said.

Delayed ceremony

The 4 p.m. opening ceremony took more time than planned with the result some of the heats and the women’s long jump, won by Resmi Bose of Kerala, were held in near darkness.

Chatholi Hamza of Services produced what looked like the third record of the day with a smart finish in the men’s 1,500m to clock 3:39.88s which in normal course would have upstaged previous record of 3:40.06s set by Bahadur Prasad way back in 1994.

With the absence of the photo finish camera, how the time keepers arrived at the time accorded to Hamza was a mystery. When the flaw was pointed out, the technical committee, in a late decision withheld the results and promised to announce the corrected version on Wednesday.

The results:

Men: 10,000m: 1. Surender Singh (Ser) 29:04.7s, 2. Sandeep Kumar (Rly) 29:32.4, 3. Soji Mathew (Rly) 29:32.8; High jump: 1. Bendict Starley (Rly) 2.19m (NMR, previous 2.18m by Hari Shankar Roy, Rly in 2006), 2. Hari Shankar Roy (Rly) 2.15, 3. Vinod Kumar (Rly) 2.03.

Women: 1,500m: 1. Sinimol Paulose (SPSB) 4:15.5s, 2. O.P. Jaisha (Rly) 4: 18.6, 3. Sushma Devi (Rly) 4:19.1; 10,000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 33:25.0s (NMR, previous 34:11.45s by Preeja in 2006), 2. Kavita Raut (Rly) 34:00.5, 3. Preeti L. Rao (Rly) 36:41.5; Long jump: 1. Resmi Bose (Ker) 6.06m, 2. Prajusha M.A. (Rly) 5.92, 3. J.J. Sobha (Rly) 5.88; Discus: 1. Krishna Poonia (Rly) 52.34m, 2. Saroj Sihag (PSCB) 49.17, 3. Baljit Kaur (PSCB) 48.60.