The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Surendra sets new mark

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Surendra sets new mark

— File photo

Surendra Singh.

NEW DELHI: Surendra Kumar Singh bettered the National record in the 3000 metres while winning the event at the St. Mary’s Classic at Twickenham, England, on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Armyman clocked 7:50.31 in the event that is not part of the regular men’s programme in major championships, to better Bahadur Prasad’s mark of 7:56.74 clocked in London in 1992.

Surendra had clocked a 7:57.87 for the distance in the Asian Grand Prix meet in Guwahati last year. He had clocked a National indoor record of 7:49.47 while coming second in the Asian indoor championships in Doha in February this year.

“I always wanted to register my name in the record books. It was a good race especially with (a) pacemaker who remained till 2600 metres,” Surendra was quoted as saying in an AFI release.

This was the first competition for the Indian middle and long distance runners in England on their six-week training programme geared towards the Beijing Olympics. Qualification marks for the Games are their main target, though none achieved a standard in Wednesday’s meet.

Using a pace-setter

The closest to a standard was Sajeesh Joseph in the men’s 800 metres. With the help of a pace-setter, he timed 1:47.45 against the qualification mark of 1:47.00 while winning the race. It was a shade under his best of 1:47.42 clocked in Jamshedpur last year. Another Indian, Rajeev Ramesan was third in 1:48.11.

Chatholi Hamza could manage only a 3:43.50 (qualification mark 3:39.00) while coming second behind Englishman Mo Farah who timed 3:42.62. Pritam Bind came third with 3:46.60.

In the women’s 1500 metres, Sinimole Paulose, looking for 4:08.00 to book her Beijing ticket, finished third in 4:14.53. England’s Charlene Thomas clocked a personal best 4:09.63 for the first place.

Preeja Sreedharan, building up her pace for the more strenuous longer distance events, had a personal best of 4:18.43, but her placing was not known. Sushma Devi came third in the women’s 800 metres with a time of 2:04.85.

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