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Mayookha bags a golden double

Stan Rayan

Joseph Abraham and Sinimole Paulose declared the best

— Photo: H. Vibhu

PROMISE DELIVERED: Mayookha Johny’s gold in the long jump event helped her bag a double in Kochi on Thursday.

KOCHI: Mayookha Johny delivered what she had promised with an impressive 6.44 metre effort to win the women’s long jump rather comfortably at the 48th National Open athletics championship at the Maharaja’s Stadium here on Thursday evening.

The 20-year-old from Kozhikode, a fast and explosive jumper, is the youngest Indian woman to go that far.

The Thalassery SAI athlete, who improved her personal best by nearly ten centimeters, thus completed a fine double in the championship, having won the triple jump with a meet record earlier.

Delighted

“I’m very happy with my performance. I could have done a little more but I was tired after the triple jump,” said the Kerala star who had a double in the Federation Cup too, in Bhopal a few months ago.

A few minutes after Mayookha produced her best, young Tintu Luka led the pack for a lap and more in the women’s 800m. Hot on her heels was Asian champion Sinimole Paulose, the defending champion.

“I tried to overtake Tintu twice, at 300m and again at 500m but each time she got faster,” said Sinimole.

“Then, at 550m, I thought if I don’t do it now, I never will’ and I charged to the front,” said the 26-year-old ONGC Officer who won in 2:03.63 secs.

“It’s very nice to have people to push you. And Tintu is very, very promising. She’s got a great coach too.”

Railway’s Sushma Devi piped Tintu for the silver.

Sinimole’s golden double — she had won the 1,500m earlier — and her timings fetched her the best woman athlete award at the championship.

She had won the award last year too, in Jamshedpur.

Joseph G. Abraham who is making a comeback after losing almost a year with a hamstring injury, won the men’s 400m hurdles competing under the Railway banner for the first time.

A little later, Joseph, a former CRPF athlete, was adjudged the best in the men’s section.

The verdict came through the Hungarian table where performance is converted into points.

“I missed qualifying for the Olympics very narrowly and the last few months were terrible,” said Joseph, who set his national record in Osaka last year. Andhra Pradesh’s H.M. Jyothi, the fastest woman here, completed a sprint double by winning the 200m.

Other notable double performances came from Sajeesh Joseph in the men’s middle distance and Preeja Sreedharan in the women’s long distance.

Railways wins title

Railways, as expected, won the overall championship with 27 golds.

It also lifted the team trophies in the men’s and women’s sections. Services finished second overall and in the men’s division while host Kerala finished second in the women’s section.

The Kerala Sports Council President, T.P. Dasan, gave away the prizes.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. Vishal Saxena (Rly) 21.45s, 2. Abdul Najeeb Oureshi (AP) 21.69, 3. Nitin Kumar (Ser) 21.79; 800m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph (Rly) 1:48.85s, 2. S. Prakash Verma (Del) 1:49.21, 3.

Ghamanda Ram (ONGC) 1:50.34; 5,000m: 1. Sandeep (Rly) 14:23.87s, 2. Ajay Kumar (Pol) 14:24.07, 3. Santosh Kumar (Rly) 14:24.54.

400m hurdles: 1. Joseph G. Abraham (Rly) 50.93s, 2. Avin A. Thomas (Rly) 51.25, 3. Satinder Singh (Rly) 52.32; 4x400m relay: 1. Railways ‘A’ (3:11.00s), 2. Services ‘A’ (3:11.20), 3. Tamil Nadu ’A’ (3:16.47); Hammer throw: 1. Joginder Singh (Rly) 62.10m, 2. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (UP) 61.94, 3. Pargat Singh (Rly) 60.55.

Women: 200m: 1. H.M. Jyothi (AP) 24.22s, 2. K. Sowjanya (AP) 24.29, 3. K. Mrudula (AP) 24.88; 800m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (ONGC) 2:03.63s, 2. Sushma Devi (Rly) 2:04.66, 3. Tintu Luka (Ker) 2:04.94.

5,000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 16:28.98s, 2. Kavita Raut (ONGC) 17:05.44, 3. Rajshree Patil (Rly) 18:01.59; 400m hurdles: 1. Harpreet Kaur (Rly) 1:00.85s, 2. K.A. Soniya (Ker) 1:01.31, 3. C. Shiji John (Rly) 1:01.46.

Heptathlon: 1. Sushmita Singh Roy (Rly) 5434 pts, 2. J.J. Shobha (Rly) 5299, 3. K.D. Sindhu (Ker) 4723; 4x400m relay: 1. Railways ‘A’ (3:43.08s), 2. Kerala ‘A’ (3:43.85), 3. Andhra Pradesh ‘A’ (3:51.78).

Overall championship: 1. Railways (27 golds), 2. Services (6 golds), 3. Kerala (3).

Team championships: Men: 1. Railways (15 golds), 2. Services (6), 3. Haryana (1); Women: 1. Railways (12 golds), 2. Kerala (3), 3. Andhra Pradesh (2).

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