The Hindu : Sport : Arunjith among five to rewrite meet marks

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Saturday, Oct 27, 2007
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Sport

Arunjith among five to rewrite meet marks

S. Sabanayakan

Sahana Kumari leaps to a new high; Sajeesh Joseph qualifies for Olympics

— Photo: Sushanta Patronobish

Defying gravity: Sahana Kumari of Railways came up with a personal best performance to set a new mark in the women’s high jump.

JAMSHEDPUR: The final day of the 47th Open National athletic championship proved to be the most exciting one with five meet marks being obliterated, an Olympic qualifier being humbled and another identified at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here on Friday.

The presence of the legendary P.T. Usha, as guest of honour at the prize distribution ceremony, made the day for most of those who witnessed the proceedings.

Sivadasan Nair Arunjith emphasised his growing stature capping a searing run with a new meet record in the men’s 200m.

The 20-year-old Palakkad-based Railway junior clerk clocked 20.92s which bested the previous mark of Anand Menezes registered at New Delhi in 2002.

A gold in the 100m and a silver in the 200m at the Bhopal inter-State and a sprint double at the Guwahati National Games gave him the confidence to take his first Open National gold. He surpassed his previous best of 21.32s achieved at the Guwahati Games.

If Arunjith was on cloud nine, at the jumping pit, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary was trying to fathom his lack of rhythm which eventually pushed him to finish second best.

Gold for Amarjeet

Having qualified for the Beijing Olympics with a jump of 17.04m at the Guwahati Asian GP, Renjith faced a rare defeat at the hands of teammate Amarjeet Singh. The Pathankot-based 26-year-old repeated his inter-State victory with a jump of 16.53m for the gold.

Renjith’s best was 16.14 on his fourth attempt and it was good enough for the silver.

In between Renjith had beaten Amarjeet at the inter-Railway meet at Bhubaneswar a fortnight ago. Preeja Sreedharan ran to a distance double adding the 5,000m gold to the 10,000m she won on the first day. She rewrote Sunita Rani’s previous mark.

Gravity fighter Sahana Kumari also produced a meet record in the women’s event with a leap of 1.82m which helped her erase Bobby Aloysius’s name from the record books.

The 26-year-old Bangalore-based athlete came with an expectation of touching 1.85 but surpassed her previous personal best of 1.81 which she achieved at the 2004 Mumbai Open meet. “I am working towards reaching the 1.91m mark needed to qualify for the Olympics. I hope to achieve it by April next year,” she said.

Sajeesh Joseph of Railways became the second athlete from this meet to qualify for the Olympics. His 1:47.42s was within the qualifying mark of 1:47.60s. Rajeev, who came second with a time of 1:47.54s too has a mark better than the ‘B’ norm. But if both have to be fielded then both will need to clock 1:46.00.

Sinimol Paulose, who was adjudged the best female athlete of the meet, came up with a fine run in the 800m. Her time of 2:02.02 equalled her career-best clocked at the Chennai inter-State meet last year.

Half of the runners in the field too registered their personal best timing with Sushma Devi’s 2:03.88 proving better than 2:05.51 (Kolkata Federation Cup), Vijila A’s 2:04.90 going past her previous best of 2:05.93 (World University Games, Bangkok).

Railways ended with 29 gold, 25 silver and 21 bronze medals to emerge the champion of the meet. Services was a distant second with 5-6-5 while Police team was third at 3-3-5.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. S. Arunjith (Rly) 20.92s (NMR, previous 21.06s by Anand Menezes at Delhi in 2002), 2. P. Muthuswami (Rly) 21.15, 3. B.G. Nagaraj (Rly) 21.35.

800m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph (Rly) 1:47.42s, 2. Rajeev R. (Rly) 1:47.54, 3. Prakash Verma (Dli) 1:49.47; 5,000m: 1. Sunil Kumar (Rly) 14:00.80s, 2. Kashinath Aswal (Rly) 14:01.49, 3. Sandeep Kumar (Rly) 14:02.35; 400m hurdles: 1. Kuldev Singh (Pol) 50.70s, 2. P. Shankar (ONGC) 51.21, 3. Jitender Singh (Ser) 51.53.

Triple jump: 1. Amarjeet Singh (Rly) 16.53m, (NMR, previous 16.39m by Renjith Maheswary at Hyderabad in 2005), 2. Renjith M. (Rly) 16.14, 3. Bibu Mathew (Ser) 16.12.

Hammer throw: 1. Harinder Singh (Pol) 62.28m, 2. Yogesh (Ser) 59.71, 3. Diwakar Singh (Rly) 59.31. 4 x 100m relay: 1. Railways 40.42s, 2. Services 40.82, 3. Tamil Nadu 41.61; 4 x 400m relay: 1. Railways 3:10.20s, 2. Services 3:11.40, 3. Gujarat (3:22.29.

Women: 200m: 1. S. Geetha (Rly) 24.09s, 2. Nidhi (Rly) 24.45, 3. H.M. Jyothi (AP) 24.59.

800m: 1. Sinimol Paulose (SPSB) 2:02.02s, 2. Sushma Devi (Rly) 2:03.88, 3. Vijila A. (Ker) 2:04.90; 5,000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 15:45.96s, (NMR, previous 16:00.98s by Sunita Rani at Bhopal in 1999), 2. O.P. Jaisha (Rly) 16:01.15, 3. Kavita Raut (Rly) 16:09.49.

400m hurdles: 1. V. Leelavathi (TN) 1:00.3s, 2. Shalin Joseph (Rly) 1:00.9, 3. Pooja Jakhar (ONGC) 1:01.2.

H igh jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Rly) 1.82m (NMR, previous 1.81 by Bobby Aloysius at Kolkata in 1998), 2. Tessy Mol Joseph (Rly) 170, 3. Sushmita Singha Roy (Ben) 1.65. 4 x 100m relay: 1. Railways (Sharada N, Nidhi, Rakhi Saha & Poonam Tomar) 45.24s (NMR, previous 45.25s by AAFI National team, Kolkata in 1998), 2. Andhra Pradesh 47.27, 3. Karnataka 47.35; 4 x 400m relay: 1. Railways 3:51.11s, 2. Bengal 3:53.52, 3. Kerala 4:05.36.