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Sinimole completes a double

K.P. Mohan

India collects 24 gold medals from 34 events

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

ONE MORE IN THE KITTY: India’s Sinimole Paulose (left) clinched the 1500m gold, adding to the 800m that she won on Friday.

KOCHI: For those who look out for medals, India’s collection of 24 gold medals from 34 events in the South Asian championships should be awe-inspiring, but as the two-day meet ended at the Maharaja’s Stadium here on Saturday, the connoisseurs could only have been left frustrated at the sight of plummeting standards.

That none made the Olympics qualifying mark will be explained away by the ‘too-early-in-the-season’ theory, but the overall standards should still cause concern.

The men’s 800 metres might have held out some hope for an Olympic qualification bid. But with the Sri Lankans being allowed to take the field through an opening lap of 54 seconds, a 1:47 (qualification mark) was all but ruled out. One of the Indians could have been ‘sacrificed’, but instead all three ran for medals.

Ramesan Rajeev, kicking hard on the penultimate bend, out-sprinted the field for a 1:48.43 finish, his best outdoors this year, while Sajeesh Joseph timed 1:49.14 for the silver.

Short of Olympic norm

Any expectation of Sinimole Paulose returning an Olympic standard in the 1500 metres was also belied after a slow opening lap. Sinimole, who had clocked 4:15.42 while winning the gold in the Asian indoor meet in Doha, timed 4:16.40. The Olympic norm stands at 4:08.00.

Sinimole, who completed the middle distance double, was adjudged the ‘best athlete’ among women. The honour in the men’s section went to Pakistani triple jumper Zafar Iqbal.

Mediocre timing

The manner in which the woman quarter-milers have shaped through the short outdoor season so far only suggested a mediocre timing in the 4x400m relay. That is how it turned out in the end, with India’s main team comprising Satti Geetha, Mandeep Kaur, Manjeet Kaur and Chitra Soman clocking 3:37.04.

Incidentally, the Indian team had clocked 3:37.46 for the gold in the Asian indoor championships in Doha recently. India has now lost a good chance this summer of clocking a decent timing towards Olympics qualification and with the coaches talking about the key athletes ‘peaking’ in June, it will now come down to the team going for broke in the Asian Grand Prix series.

There will, of course, be plans to enter the team in some meets in Europe in case the qualification race comes unstuck in the Asian meets. At the moment, however, nothing is concrete.

The coaches will have to keep the 16th best time in the world last year (Romania’s 3:30.22) as the minimum benchmark for the women’s relay team.

Away from the Olympic qualification topic, Sahana Kumari achieved a personal best of 1.85 metres while claiming the high jump gold. Only Bobby Aloysius (National record 1.91m) has jumped higher than that in the country.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. Shivantha Weerasooriya (Sri) 21.44, 2. Ashan Hasaranga (Sri) 21.84, 3. Mohammad Imran (Pak) 21.91; 800m: 1. Ramesan Rajeev (Ind) 1:48.43, 2. Sajeesh Joseph (Ind) 1:49.14, 3. Suresh Abenayake (Sri) 1:49.58.

10,000m: 1. Santosh Kumar Patel (Ind) 29:41.67, 2. Soji Mathew (Ind) 29:45.86, 3. A.M. Ajith Bandara (Sri) 30:30.53; 400m hurdles: 1. P. Shankar (Ind) 50.72, 2. Kuldev Singh (Ind) 51.05, 3. H.P.Y. Ajith (Sri) 51.49; High jump: 1. Hari Sankar Roy (Ind) 2.15, 2. Nalin Priyantha (Sri) 2.10, 3. Benedit Starli (Ind) 2.10.

Long jump: 1. Maha Singh (Ind) 7.55, 2. Pushpender Singh (Ind) 7.52, 3. Muhammad Riaz (Pak) 7.31; Discus: 1. Sukhbir Singh (Ind) 52.23, 2. Basharat Ali (Pak) 51.34, 3. Simranjit Singh (Ind) 49.61; Javelin: 1. Mohammed Imran (Pak) 72.91, 2. Kashi Nath Naik (Ind) 72.73, 3. Mohammed Arfan Hussain (Pak) 68.71.

4x100m relay: 1. India 40.86, 2. Pakistan 41.11, 3. Sri Lanka 41.13; 4x400m relay: 1. Sri Lanka 3:08.93 (NMR, previous 3:09.61), 2. India 3:10.44, 3. Pakistan 3:24.54.

Women: 200m: 1. Pramila Priyadarshini (Sri) 24.04, 2. L.S. Irangini (Sri) 24.25, 3. Susmita Singha Roy (Ind) 24.40; 1500m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (Ind) 4:16.40, 2. Sushma Devi (Ind) 4:19.82, 3. D.A. Shanika Samanmali (Sri) 4:25.33.

400m hurdles: 1. V. Leelavathy (Ind) 59.35, 2. Harpreet Kaur (Ind) 1:01.11, 3. P.S.M. De Soyza (Sri) 1:01.51; High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Ind) 1.85, 2. Priyangika Madhuwanthi 1.85, 3. Janitha Kodikara (Sri) 1.77; Shot put: 1. Seema Antil (Ind) 14.34, 2. Nadeeka Muthunayake (Sri) 13.66, 3. Saroj Sihag (Ind) 13.40.

4x100m relay: 1. Sri Lanka 45.95, 2. India 46.67, 3. Pakistan 47.44; 4x400m relay: 1. India ‘A’ 3:37.04 (NMR, previous 3:39.48), 2. Sri Lanka 3:37.35, 3. India ‘B’ 3:42.84.

Medals standings: India 24 gold, 19 silver, 14 bronze; Sri Lanka 7-9-15; Pakistan 3-6-5.

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