Tintu Luka takes an impressive 400/800m double at the 2010 Indian national championships (© Organisers)
Hyderabad, IndiaHeld in its Golden Jubilee Year, the Indian national Inter-State Senior Athletics championships (23-26) at Hyderabad served as the final selection trials for Indian aspirants at home for the Olympic Games in London.
The magnificent G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium, venue for the nationals, was built for the National Games in 2002 and witnessed several international events since including the inaugural Asian Grand Prix athletics series, the Afro-Asian Games and CISM World Military Games among others.
Although only one athlete, high jumper Sahana Kumari attained the Olympic norm, keen contests were witnessed in several events in the four-day meet. The athlete from Karnataka state, cleared 1.92m —the B standard for London— to achieve the honour. By sailing over the height she eclipsed the national and meet record of 1.91m held by Bobby Aloysius of Kerala since 2004. Aloysius was the first woman high jumper from India to take part in the Olympic Games at Athens. Her national record also came when she attempt to qualify for Olympics.
Kumari had a previous best of 1.89m which she achieved during this year’s Asian Grand Prix series in Thailand in May. Sahana, wife of former national sprint champion B.G. Nagaraj, and a mother, cleared 1.92m on her first attempt although she had some struggle at the previous height. She then bowed out at 1.95m.
"The event was delayed for nearly two hours which made things difficult," she said.
"She put in a lot of hard work and I am sure she could go higher in London," her coach, Evgeniy Nikitin, said.
While Sahana become the fourteenth Indian athlete to attain the Olympic qualification, several other top Indians who were training abroad could not make it to Hyderabad. However one of the athletes who has already qualified, half-miler Tintu Luka, did compete and engaged in to a tussle between another fine middle distance runner Sinimole Paulose in the 800m. Paulose entered the fray thinking of achieving a better mark than Tintu to gain a berth on the Indian squad, however on the appointed day she could not match the young Luka as she timed 2:03.71 against 2:01.36.
Paulose thought of trying again in the 1500m on the last day of the meet, but was down with food poisoning and withdraw at the last minute.
Intermediate hurdler Joseph G. Abraham, the reigning Asian Games champion and a World championships semi-finalist in Osaka 2007, failed to accomplish his dream of making it to the London-bound team as he finished second behind defending champion Satinder Singh. Singh clocked a personal best 49.99 secs while Abraham was second in 50.39s. The national record holder with 49.51, Abraham had a season’s best of 49.98s earlier during the FedCup in Patiala. After the race in Hyderabad, the Kerala athlete admitted that he spent all his energy during the previous day’s heats and ran too hard during the early half of the final which caused the problem. He further revealed that he would again target the time during the upcoming Asian All-Stars meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the end of this month.
Double for Prajusha
M.A. Prajusha, the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist in the Long Jump, had a 'double’ taking gold in both the long and triple jumps. She didn’t find her rhythm during the long jump to achieve her best, but a rejuvenated Prajusha had a fine Triple Jump series. Her winning mark of 13.66m was just two centimetres shy of the meet mark held by state-mate and Olympic qualifier Mayookha Johny.
Satti Geetha, a member of gold winning Indian 4x400m relay squad at the Asian Games in Doha six years ago, who represented the host state Andhra Pradesh has showed all her might to win the women’s 100m and powered her state to victory in the sprint relay. However her ambition of taking a third gold in the 200m dash did not materialise as the Haryana girl Manisha surged past to win the event. Earlier Manisha was disqualified for a false start in the 100m.
As expected Kerala retained the team championships with a whopping 192 points with runner-up Uttar Pradesh a distant second with 82.
Punjab lad Satinder Singh (400m hurdles) and Kerala star Tintu Luka (800m) emerged as the best male and female athletes of the meet.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Leading Results:
MEN
100m (23) (-0.5): 1. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi AP 10.59, 2. Kiran Kumar Rane MAH 10.60, 3. Shameer Mon KER 10.62
200m (26) (-0.6): 1. Nitin DEL 21.44, 2. Manikanda Arumugham TN 21.60, 3. Ritesh Anand JHAR 21.68
400m (24): 1. P.P. Kunhu Mohammed KER 46.20, 2. S.K. Mortaja BEN 46.91, 3.Aroakya Rajiv RAJ 47.86
800m (24): 1. Ghamanda Ram RAJ 1:47.57, 2. Jinson Johnson CHAT 1:47.80, 3. Sajeesh Joseph KER 1:48.85
1500m (26): 1. Sandeep HAR 3:42.76, 2. Chatholi Hamza KER 3:45.67, 3. Pranjal Gogoi ASM 3:49.88
5000m (23): 1. Indrajeet Patel UP 14:21.44, 2. Man Singh DEL 14:24.95, 3. Nitender Singh UTK 14:25.36
10000m (26): 1. Kheta Ram RAJ 29:49.71, 2. Suresh Kumar Patel UP 29:57.11, 3. V.L. Dangi RAJ 30:13.55
3000m steeplechase (24): 1. Th. Sanjit Luwang MANI 8:47.09, 2. R. Ramachandran TN 8:47.58, 3. Jaiveer HAR 8:53.32
110m hurdles (26) (+1.4): 1. A. Suresh JHAR 13.96, 2. T. Balamurugan TN 14.18, 3. K. Premkumar TN 14.62
400m hurdles (25): 1. Satinder Singh PUN 49.99, 2. Joseph G. Abraham KER 50.39, 3. Durgesh Kumar Pal MAH 50.80
High jump (24): 1. Jithin C. Thomas KER 2.14, 2. S. Harshith KAN 2.11, 3. Nikhil Chittarasu TN 2.08
Pole vault (25): 1. K.P. Bimin KER 4.95, 2. J. Preeth TN 4.90, 3. Sunder Singh HAR 4.70
Long jump (25): 1. M. Arshad KAN 7.42/+0.0, 2. K. Prem Kumar TN 7.41/-0.2, 3. Maha Singh PUN 7.28/+0.6
Triple jump (23): 1. Arpinder Singh PUN 15.90/-0.4, 2. Saurabh Singh UP 15.79/-0.8, 3. Rajasekar TN 15.69/+1.0
Shot put (26): 1. Shakti Singh RAJ 18.25, 2. Satyendra Kumar UP 17.83, 3. Jagroop Singh PUN 17.66
Discus throw (23): 1. Dharam Raj Yadav UP 51.62, 2. Susheel Kumar Tripathi UP 50.61, 3. C.G. Binoy KER 49.39
Hammer throw (24): 1. Chandrodaya Narayan Singh UP 65.95, 2. Niraj Kumar RAJ 60.54, 3. Daler Singh PUN 57.10
Javelin throw (25): 1. Anil Singh DEL 74.39, 2. Rajender Singh HAR 73.75, 3. Samarjeet Singh RAJ 72.74
Decathlon (25): 1. K. Dileep Kumar MAH 6676, 2. Chandrahas Kushwaha UP 6672, 3. V.V. Raneesh KER 6594
20 km walk (25): 1. Surinder Singh PUN 1:29:32, 2. Sandeep Kumar HAR 1:30:12, 3. Maniram Patel MP 1:30:15
4 x 100m relay (24): 1. Tamil Nadu 40.53, 2. Kerala 40.97, 3. Andhra Pradesh 41.21
4 x 400m relay (26): 1. Kerala 3:14.84, 2. Madhya Pradesh 3:19.78, 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:34.71
WOMEN
100m (23) (-0.4): 1. S. Geetha AP 12.00, 2. M.M. Anchu KER 12.18, 3. Ruma Sarkar BEN 12.37
200m (26) (-0.2): 1. Manisha HAR 24.26, 2. S. Geetha AP 24.33, 3. Merlin K. Joseph KER 24.88
400m (24): 1. Debashree Mazumdar BEN 54.60, 2. Saraswati Chand ORI 54.89, 3. Rattandeep Kaur PUN 55.08
800m (24): 1. Tintu Luka KER 2:01.36, 2. Sinimole Paulose KAN 2:03.71, 3. S.R. Bindu KER 2:09.53
1500m (26): 1. Jhuma Khatun JHAR 4:28.31, 2. S.R. Bindu KER 4:28.53, 3. Fulan Khatun BEN 4:40.23
5000m (23): 1. Sahanara Khatun BEN 17:58.56, 2. Monika Motiram Athre MAH 18:02.78, 3. Archana Pal UP 18:09.51
10000m (26): 1. Monika Motiram Athre MAH 37:03.97, 2. Manisha Salunke MAH 37:54.95, 3. Archana Pal UP 38:57.09
3000m steeplechase (24): 1. Priyanka Singh Patel UP 10:42.21, 2. Kiran Tiwari HAR 10:42.67, 3. Chinta Yadav UP 11:40.42
100m hurdles (26) (-0.6): 1. M.M. Anchu KER 14.00, 2. Purnima Hembram ORI 14.35, 3. Meghana Shetty KAN 14.51
400m hurdles (25): 1. R. Anu KER 60.34, 2. C.T. Raji KER 60.47, 3. M.S. Darsana KER 60.93
High jump (23): 1. Sahana Kumari 1.92 (National Record), 2. Mallika Mondal BEN 1.79, 3. N.K. Siji KER 1.76
Pole vault (23): 1. Surekha Renjith TN 3.60, 2. Khyathi KAN 3.50, 3. R. Remya KER 3.40
Long jump (24): 1. M.A. Prajusha KER 6.24/+0.0, 2. Shraddha Ghule MAH 6.14/+0.3, 3. Susan K. Joy KER 6.13/+0.2
Triple jump (26): 1. M.A. Prajusha KER 13.66/+1.0, 2. Shraddha Ghule MAH 13.18/+1.1, 3. Amitha Baby KER 12.72/-0.4
Shot put (24): 1. Patwant Kaur PUN 13.76, 2. P. Udaya Lakshmi AP 13.35, 3. Suparna Ghosh BEN 13.31
Discus throw (26): 1. Harwant Kaur PUN 55.92, 2. Praveen Kumari RAJ 46.11, 3. Santosh HAR 40.39
Hammer throw (25): 1. Manju Bala RAJ 58.27, 2. Anitha Abraham KER 52.75, 3. P. Sarita GUJ 52.60
Javelin throw (23): 1. Anu Rani UP 53.95, 2. Suman Devi UP 53.61, 3. Rupinder Kaur PUN 47.01
Heptathlon (26): 1. Sushmita Singha Roy BEN 5651, 2. Liksy Joseph KER 4941, 3. Niksy Joseph KER 4706
20 km walk (25): 1. L. Deepmala Devi JHAR 1:44:55, 2. Ranjana Gupta MP 1:52:23, 3. Anitha Mahala RAJ 1:53:00
4 x 100m relay (24): 1. Andhra Pradesh 46.79, 2. Kerala 46.84, 3. Maharashtra 47.36
4 x 400m relay (26): 1. Kerala 3:45.06, 2. West Bengal 3:50.87, 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:51.03
The magnificent G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium, venue for the nationals, was built for the National Games in 2002 and witnessed several international events since including the inaugural Asian Grand Prix athletics series, the Afro-Asian Games and CISM World Military Games among others.
Although only one athlete, high jumper Sahana Kumari attained the Olympic norm, keen contests were witnessed in several events in the four-day meet. The athlete from Karnataka state, cleared 1.92m —the B standard for London— to achieve the honour. By sailing over the height she eclipsed the national and meet record of 1.91m held by Bobby Aloysius of Kerala since 2004. Aloysius was the first woman high jumper from India to take part in the Olympic Games at Athens. Her national record also came when she attempt to qualify for Olympics.
Kumari had a previous best of 1.89m which she achieved during this year’s Asian Grand Prix series in Thailand in May. Sahana, wife of former national sprint champion B.G. Nagaraj, and a mother, cleared 1.92m on her first attempt although she had some struggle at the previous height. She then bowed out at 1.95m.
"The event was delayed for nearly two hours which made things difficult," she said.
"She put in a lot of hard work and I am sure she could go higher in London," her coach, Evgeniy Nikitin, said.
While Sahana become the fourteenth Indian athlete to attain the Olympic qualification, several other top Indians who were training abroad could not make it to Hyderabad. However one of the athletes who has already qualified, half-miler Tintu Luka, did compete and engaged in to a tussle between another fine middle distance runner Sinimole Paulose in the 800m. Paulose entered the fray thinking of achieving a better mark than Tintu to gain a berth on the Indian squad, however on the appointed day she could not match the young Luka as she timed 2:03.71 against 2:01.36.
Paulose thought of trying again in the 1500m on the last day of the meet, but was down with food poisoning and withdraw at the last minute.
Intermediate hurdler Joseph G. Abraham, the reigning Asian Games champion and a World championships semi-finalist in Osaka 2007, failed to accomplish his dream of making it to the London-bound team as he finished second behind defending champion Satinder Singh. Singh clocked a personal best 49.99 secs while Abraham was second in 50.39s. The national record holder with 49.51, Abraham had a season’s best of 49.98s earlier during the FedCup in Patiala. After the race in Hyderabad, the Kerala athlete admitted that he spent all his energy during the previous day’s heats and ran too hard during the early half of the final which caused the problem. He further revealed that he would again target the time during the upcoming Asian All-Stars meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the end of this month.
Double for Prajusha
M.A. Prajusha, the 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist in the Long Jump, had a 'double’ taking gold in both the long and triple jumps. She didn’t find her rhythm during the long jump to achieve her best, but a rejuvenated Prajusha had a fine Triple Jump series. Her winning mark of 13.66m was just two centimetres shy of the meet mark held by state-mate and Olympic qualifier Mayookha Johny.
Satti Geetha, a member of gold winning Indian 4x400m relay squad at the Asian Games in Doha six years ago, who represented the host state Andhra Pradesh has showed all her might to win the women’s 100m and powered her state to victory in the sprint relay. However her ambition of taking a third gold in the 200m dash did not materialise as the Haryana girl Manisha surged past to win the event. Earlier Manisha was disqualified for a false start in the 100m.
As expected Kerala retained the team championships with a whopping 192 points with runner-up Uttar Pradesh a distant second with 82.
Punjab lad Satinder Singh (400m hurdles) and Kerala star Tintu Luka (800m) emerged as the best male and female athletes of the meet.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Leading Results:
MEN
100m (23) (-0.5): 1. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi AP 10.59, 2. Kiran Kumar Rane MAH 10.60, 3. Shameer Mon KER 10.62
200m (26) (-0.6): 1. Nitin DEL 21.44, 2. Manikanda Arumugham TN 21.60, 3. Ritesh Anand JHAR 21.68
400m (24): 1. P.P. Kunhu Mohammed KER 46.20, 2. S.K. Mortaja BEN 46.91, 3.Aroakya Rajiv RAJ 47.86
800m (24): 1. Ghamanda Ram RAJ 1:47.57, 2. Jinson Johnson CHAT 1:47.80, 3. Sajeesh Joseph KER 1:48.85
1500m (26): 1. Sandeep HAR 3:42.76, 2. Chatholi Hamza KER 3:45.67, 3. Pranjal Gogoi ASM 3:49.88
5000m (23): 1. Indrajeet Patel UP 14:21.44, 2. Man Singh DEL 14:24.95, 3. Nitender Singh UTK 14:25.36
10000m (26): 1. Kheta Ram RAJ 29:49.71, 2. Suresh Kumar Patel UP 29:57.11, 3. V.L. Dangi RAJ 30:13.55
3000m steeplechase (24): 1. Th. Sanjit Luwang MANI 8:47.09, 2. R. Ramachandran TN 8:47.58, 3. Jaiveer HAR 8:53.32
110m hurdles (26) (+1.4): 1. A. Suresh JHAR 13.96, 2. T. Balamurugan TN 14.18, 3. K. Premkumar TN 14.62
400m hurdles (25): 1. Satinder Singh PUN 49.99, 2. Joseph G. Abraham KER 50.39, 3. Durgesh Kumar Pal MAH 50.80
High jump (24): 1. Jithin C. Thomas KER 2.14, 2. S. Harshith KAN 2.11, 3. Nikhil Chittarasu TN 2.08
Pole vault (25): 1. K.P. Bimin KER 4.95, 2. J. Preeth TN 4.90, 3. Sunder Singh HAR 4.70
Long jump (25): 1. M. Arshad KAN 7.42/+0.0, 2. K. Prem Kumar TN 7.41/-0.2, 3. Maha Singh PUN 7.28/+0.6
Triple jump (23): 1. Arpinder Singh PUN 15.90/-0.4, 2. Saurabh Singh UP 15.79/-0.8, 3. Rajasekar TN 15.69/+1.0
Shot put (26): 1. Shakti Singh RAJ 18.25, 2. Satyendra Kumar UP 17.83, 3. Jagroop Singh PUN 17.66
Discus throw (23): 1. Dharam Raj Yadav UP 51.62, 2. Susheel Kumar Tripathi UP 50.61, 3. C.G. Binoy KER 49.39
Hammer throw (24): 1. Chandrodaya Narayan Singh UP 65.95, 2. Niraj Kumar RAJ 60.54, 3. Daler Singh PUN 57.10
Javelin throw (25): 1. Anil Singh DEL 74.39, 2. Rajender Singh HAR 73.75, 3. Samarjeet Singh RAJ 72.74
Decathlon (25): 1. K. Dileep Kumar MAH 6676, 2. Chandrahas Kushwaha UP 6672, 3. V.V. Raneesh KER 6594
20 km walk (25): 1. Surinder Singh PUN 1:29:32, 2. Sandeep Kumar HAR 1:30:12, 3. Maniram Patel MP 1:30:15
4 x 100m relay (24): 1. Tamil Nadu 40.53, 2. Kerala 40.97, 3. Andhra Pradesh 41.21
4 x 400m relay (26): 1. Kerala 3:14.84, 2. Madhya Pradesh 3:19.78, 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:34.71
WOMEN
100m (23) (-0.4): 1. S. Geetha AP 12.00, 2. M.M. Anchu KER 12.18, 3. Ruma Sarkar BEN 12.37
200m (26) (-0.2): 1. Manisha HAR 24.26, 2. S. Geetha AP 24.33, 3. Merlin K. Joseph KER 24.88
400m (24): 1. Debashree Mazumdar BEN 54.60, 2. Saraswati Chand ORI 54.89, 3. Rattandeep Kaur PUN 55.08
800m (24): 1. Tintu Luka KER 2:01.36, 2. Sinimole Paulose KAN 2:03.71, 3. S.R. Bindu KER 2:09.53
1500m (26): 1. Jhuma Khatun JHAR 4:28.31, 2. S.R. Bindu KER 4:28.53, 3. Fulan Khatun BEN 4:40.23
5000m (23): 1. Sahanara Khatun BEN 17:58.56, 2. Monika Motiram Athre MAH 18:02.78, 3. Archana Pal UP 18:09.51
10000m (26): 1. Monika Motiram Athre MAH 37:03.97, 2. Manisha Salunke MAH 37:54.95, 3. Archana Pal UP 38:57.09
3000m steeplechase (24): 1. Priyanka Singh Patel UP 10:42.21, 2. Kiran Tiwari HAR 10:42.67, 3. Chinta Yadav UP 11:40.42
100m hurdles (26) (-0.6): 1. M.M. Anchu KER 14.00, 2. Purnima Hembram ORI 14.35, 3. Meghana Shetty KAN 14.51
400m hurdles (25): 1. R. Anu KER 60.34, 2. C.T. Raji KER 60.47, 3. M.S. Darsana KER 60.93
High jump (23): 1. Sahana Kumari 1.92 (National Record), 2. Mallika Mondal BEN 1.79, 3. N.K. Siji KER 1.76
Pole vault (23): 1. Surekha Renjith TN 3.60, 2. Khyathi KAN 3.50, 3. R. Remya KER 3.40
Long jump (24): 1. M.A. Prajusha KER 6.24/+0.0, 2. Shraddha Ghule MAH 6.14/+0.3, 3. Susan K. Joy KER 6.13/+0.2
Triple jump (26): 1. M.A. Prajusha KER 13.66/+1.0, 2. Shraddha Ghule MAH 13.18/+1.1, 3. Amitha Baby KER 12.72/-0.4
Shot put (24): 1. Patwant Kaur PUN 13.76, 2. P. Udaya Lakshmi AP 13.35, 3. Suparna Ghosh BEN 13.31
Discus throw (26): 1. Harwant Kaur PUN 55.92, 2. Praveen Kumari RAJ 46.11, 3. Santosh HAR 40.39
Hammer throw (25): 1. Manju Bala RAJ 58.27, 2. Anitha Abraham KER 52.75, 3. P. Sarita GUJ 52.60
Javelin throw (23): 1. Anu Rani UP 53.95, 2. Suman Devi UP 53.61, 3. Rupinder Kaur PUN 47.01
Heptathlon (26): 1. Sushmita Singha Roy BEN 5651, 2. Liksy Joseph KER 4941, 3. Niksy Joseph KER 4706
20 km walk (25): 1. L. Deepmala Devi JHAR 1:44:55, 2. Ranjana Gupta MP 1:52:23, 3. Anitha Mahala RAJ 1:53:00
4 x 100m relay (24): 1. Andhra Pradesh 46.79, 2. Kerala 46.84, 3. Maharashtra 47.36
4 x 400m relay (26): 1. Kerala 3:45.06, 2. West Bengal 3:50.87, 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:51.03
