The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Shankar beats Abraham in hurdles

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Sport - Athletics

Shankar beats Abraham in hurdles

K. P. Mohan

— Photo: M. Moorthy

GOLDEN EFFORT: P. Shankar, who won the 400m hurdles at the Velammal National inter-State athletics championship in Madurai on Monday.

MADURAI: P. Shankar edged National record-holder Joseph Abraham in a keen 400m hurdles final on the second day of the Velammal National inter-State athletics championships at the MGR Stadium here on Monday.

It was expected to be a close contest, notwithstanding Abraham’s rustiness and it turned out to be so. Coming into the home bend Shankar had the advantage, but the Kerala man made a determined effort on the last two hurdles before losing.

Hamstring strain

Abraham, coming back into competition after an eight-week lay-off, apparently strained his hamstring around 25 metres from the finish as he made a desperate attempt to win. He had remained unbeaten at home through 2007 when he clocked two National records, 49.52 in Guwahati in June and 49.51 in the World championships in Osaka in August, the last one bringing him agonisingly close to the Olympic qualification mark of 49.50s.

After suffering a hamstring injury in Bhopal in September Abraham skipped the rest of the season, missed the early part of this year through a combination of injury and pre-occupation with his new job with the Railways before coming back here. He will probably have to wait for the next season to do anything notable.

Shankar who last beat Abraham in the Asian Grand Prix timed 50.89, Abraham 50.97 and T. Balamurugan of Tamil Nadu, whom coach Rajinder Singh rates highly, came in 51.95.

Gajanan Upadhyay, after making sure of the gold in pole vault at 4.80 metres, went for the national record at 5.11 but failed.

On a day when events were stretched out to apparently accommodate live coverage requirements, the schedule brought out yawns much of the time. Dull contests only aggravated the misery of the small gathering.

The results: Men: 400m hurdles: 1. P. Shankar (AP) 50.89, 2. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 50.97, 3. T. Balamurugan TN) 51.95.

Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (Jharkhand) 4.80, 2. Sunder Singh (Pun) 4.70, 3. Bimin K. P. (Ker) 4.60.

Women: 400m hurdles: 1. Harpreet Kaur (Jharkhand) 1:00.31, 2. Pooja Jakhar (Del) 1:00.44, 3. Sutapa Das (Ben) 1:02.60.

20000m walk: 1. Deepmala Devi (Jharkhand) 1:47:55.57, 2. Y. Bala Devi (Jharkhand) 1:51:13.58, 3. Supriya Adak (Mah) 1:53:15.99.

Javelin: 1. S. Saraswathi (TN) 46.34, 2. Suman Devi (UP) 44.43, 3. Mukesh Kumar Har) 42.45.

Sunday’s results:

Men: 100m: 1. Shameer Mon (Ker) 10.50, 2. Vilas Neelgund (AP) 10.55, 3. Ajay Kumar Nayak (Jharkhand) 10.61.

High jump: 1. Prince Jose (Ker) 2.05, 2. B. Elakumaran (TN) 2.05, 3. Benedict Starli (TN) 2.05.

Triple jump: 1. Amarjeet Singh (Jharkhand) 16.67 (NMR, previous 16.50), 2. Renjith Maheswary (Ker) 16.21, 3. Bibu Mahew (Ker) 15.90.

Women: 100m: 1. Poonam Tomar (Del) 11.93, 2. Sarda Narayanan (TN) 11.98, 3. H. M. Jyothi (AP) 12.01.

Pole vault: 1. V.S. Sureka (TN) 3.70, 2. Jisha R. (Ker) 3.00, 3. Remy R. (Ker) 2.60.

Shot put: 1. N. Latha (TN) 13.43, 2. Sushma (Del) 13.09, 3. Patwant Kaur (Pun) 12.95.

Hammer: 1. Vipin Kumari (Del) 52.12m, 2. Archana Bara (Bih) 49.66, 3. Sukanya Mishra (UP) 48.09.

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