Joseph Abraham winning the men's 400m Hurdles at the Indian Champs (© Ram. Murali Krishnan)
Ranchi, IndiaJoseph Abraham continued his golden run by taking his fourth straight win in the 400m Hurdles in the final leg of Indian Grand Prix athletic series which held at newly furbished Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi, on Wednesday night (10).
Abraham, the only Indian athlete to attain the World championships qualifying norm this year with his 49.59 effort at the 3rd leg of the National Grand Prix at Chennai, timed 49.87 in Ranchi. Abraham, who competed at the World championships two years ago in Osaka, where he clocked his 49.51 national record, will again be representing India once again at Berlin this August. The other Indian qualifiers who have all achieved the required standard through their performances last year have yet to show any form in 2009.
Time and again high jumper Harishankar Roy fails to gain a berth on the Indian squad to Berlin. He keep sailing over 2.20m, both in the national competitions and also on foreign soil, but missed the opportunity to clear 2.28m—the ‘B’ standard for World championships.
The same was the case with long jumper Maha Singh, the World Railway champion who was said to have jumped over 8m consistently during the trials, but fell short during the competitions. Singh leaped to his second all-time best 7.94m at Chennai on 14 May. When the second phase of the NGP begun at Jamshedpur on 7 June, he left his mark at 7.80m He went further down to 7.62 at Ranchi.
The women athletes did not show any promise during the last two legs of NGP at Jamshedpur and Ranchi. Many top athletes skipped the meets after their return from the Asian Grand Prix series in China at the end of May. They preferred to take some rest before the Federation Cup, originally scheduled to be held at Chennai in June 24-27, but highly disappointed following its postponement.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Click here for results from Ranchi
Click here results from Jamshedpur
