The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Surendra betters record

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Monday, Jun 16, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Surendra betters record

— File Photo

Surendra Singh.

MADURAI: Surendra Singh bettered the 32-year-old National record in the 10,000 metres, clocking 28:22.79 to win the title in the Nike BMC Grand Prix at Watford, outside London, on Sunday.

Surendra’s time bettered the mark of Hari Chand set in the Montreal Olympics in 1976, that of 28:48.72. The 29-year-old Armyman improved his personal best of 28:75.90, clocked in the Federation Cup last year, but failed to get the Olympic qualification mark of 28:10.00.

According to information provided by the AFI, Preeja Sreedharan set a National record in the women’s 10,000 metres, and in the process made the qualification grade for the Olympics.

Preeja was more than a minute better than her personal best (33:19.71 in Kolkata in 2007) as she timed 32:04.41 to come behind Briton Jo Pavey (31:56.90). The Olympic qualification ‘B’ standard is 32:20.00.

Sandip Kumar finished fourth in the men’s 10,000m in 2:17.97, also a personal best. Briton Anthony Ford came second in 28:30.39 to win the UK title while Phil Nichols was third in 28:54.95.

Surendra exploited perfect weather conditions with an average 2:52 per kiolmetre for the first nine km and then speeded up during the final kilometre to better Hari Chand’s fabled national mark.

Continuing the outstanding feats of Nikolai Snesarev’s batch of middle and long distance runners, Rajeev Ramesan clocked a personal best of 1:47.20 in the 800 metres to win, but he failed to reach the qualification mark of 1:47.00. Sajeesh Joseph came second in 1:47.67. In the 1500 metres, Pritam Bind clocked 3:42.91 for the third place with Ravinder Sharma coming fifth in 3:43.83.

Indian team will be back at Watford June 18 to take part in the BMC Gold Races.

Yogaraj wins gold

In Jakarta, Yogaraj Lakshmanan, a fist year B.Com student from Nagpur’s APA College, won for India its lone gold medal as the 13th Asian junior athletics championships concluded at the Madya Stadium on Sunday.

Yogaraj cleared 2.14m in high jump and was tied with Chen Cheng of China but won the gold on a countback. Manaio Anoda of Japan took the bronze at 2.11.

India’s gold medal hope in the women’s 800 metres, Tintu Luka could manage only the silver behind Chinese Tong Xiaomei in 2:08.63. The Chinese timed 2:06.64.

India added a silver in the men’s 4x400m relay and a bronze in the women’s 4x400m relay to swell its medals tally to one gold four silver and two bronze medals.

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