V. S. Surekha (© The Hindu)
The 43rd Indian Open National Athletic Championships saw the emergence of two junior athletes who put up a creditable show at the garden city of Bangalore. The three-day event, scheduled as ‘selection trials’ for the Indian Team for the inaugural Afro-Asian Games, was marred by the absence of many top class athletes for various reasons. However, it did not deter the gallant efforts of the young aspirants to excel.
Naunidh Singh, the young Punjab Police athlete, perfectly ran over the hurdles to improve upon his national junior record from 14.18 set in Manila ATF barely less than a week ago to 14.12 here.
19 year old Vazhipali Suresh Surekha, the student of MOP Vaishnav College in Chennai and a product of the Velammal’s Prime Sports Academy, was a star performer of the meet as she sailed over a height of 3.51 metres in the women’s pole vault. Surekha’s effort bettered the senior national record held by Karamjeet Kaur by one cm.
Miss J. Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu State, immediately recognized the athlete’s performance with a cash award of One Lakh Rupees.
Perhaps, for a global athletics buff Surekha’s mark may not impress as it is well over a metre behind the world class performances, but anyone following the Indian athletic scene seriously will certainly know that it was the same case with the male athletes here. Only two Indian men had a 5+ mark to their credit to date. If Surekha gets a specialist pole vault trainer and perfect training facility, she will certainly bring laurels to her country.
The discus throwers Anil Kumar and Neelam Jaswant Singh registered their season’s best marks. Gulab Chand, Saraswati Saha and J.J. Shobha completed a double each.
As expected Railways took the women and overall championships while services won in the men’s division. Naunidh and Surekha were declared as best athletes of the meet.
Results:
Men:
100m (28) [w: -3.8]: 1. Vilas Nilagund (Karnataka) 10.70; 1. Piyush Kumar (Railways) 10.73; 3. Sandeep Sarkaria (LIC) 10.76;
200m (30) [w: 0.2]: 1. Piyush Kumar (Railways) 21.29; 2. Vilas Nilagund (Karnataka) 21.42; 3. Abhishek Pandey (LIC) 21.46;
400m (29): 1. K.J. Manoj Lal (Railways) 46.04; 2. P. Ramachandran (Tamil Nadu) 46.81; 3. Anil Kumar Rohil (Services) 47.12;
800m (30): 1. P.S. Primesh (LIC) 1:49.61; 2. Ghamnda Ram (Services) 1:50.47; 3. Jay Kumar (Kerala) 1:51.09;
1500m (28): 1. Gulab Chand (Railways) 3:56.11; 2. C Hamsa (Services) 3:56.48; 3. B.B. Manjunath (Karnataka) 3:59.97;
5000m (30): 1. Gulab Chand (Railways) 15:15.5; 2. C. Hamsa (Services) 16:16.1, 3. I. Shivananda (Railways) 15:16.7;
10,000m (29): 1. I. Shivananda (Railways) 33:34.33; 2. K. Upendra (Police) 33:34.59; 3. Puran Chand (Railways) 33:44.44;
3000m SC (30): 1. Arun D’Souza (Railways) 9:07.77; 2. R.B. Subba (Police) 9:09.95; 3. R. Suresh (Services) 9:29.45;
110-H (29) [w: 0.3]: 1. Naunidh Singh (Pol) 14.12 (National Junior Record), 2. Gurpreet Singh (Police) 14.50; 3. Krishna Mohan (Services) 14.52;
400-H (28): 1. V Prasad Reddy (Services) 51.54; 2. Rakesh Kanwar (Services) 52.30; 3. Joseph C. Abraham (Police) 52.31;
HJ (28): 1. Harishankar Roy (Bengal) 2.12; 2. Benedict Starly (Tamil Nadu) 2.12; 3. Maria Lorans (Services) 2.09;
PV (28): 1. Jitendra Singh (Police) 4.90; 2. Praveen Kumar (Railways) 4.80; 3. Ramdhari (Services) 4.70;
LJ (29): 1. Sanjay Kumar Rai (Railways) 7.58; 2. Maha Singh (Railways) 7.43; 3. Ramachandran (Services) 7.31;
TJ (30): 1. Sanjay Dwivedi (Services) 15.50; 2. K.C. Saintison (Services) 15.42; 3. Bhupinder SIngh (Police) 15.28;
SP (30): 1. Bahadur Singh (Police) 19.59; 2. Shakti Singh (Railways) 18.69; 3. Mohtam Singh (Services) 17.72;
DT (29): 1. Anil Kumar (Haryana) 60.07; 2. Surusevak Singh (Police) 53.89; 3. Hridayanand Singh (Uttaranchal) 53.86;
HT (28): 1. Pramod Tiwari (UP) 67.70; 2. Rakesh Kumar (UP) 66.26; 3. Birkaran Singh (Punjab) 65.13;
JT (30): 1. Md. Fazal Ansari (Services) 72.74; 2. Gajender Singh (Railways) 70.72; 3. Rai Singh (Railways) 70.37;
Decathlon (29): 1. Kulwinder Singh (Services) 7094; 2. Mandeep Kumar (Railways) 6815; 3. Jora Singh (Police) 6598;
20,000m walk (28): 1. Seetharam (Services) 1::32:22.5; 2. Gurdev Singh (Services) 1::33:21.0; 3. Amrik Singh (Services) 1::33:48.8;
4x100m (29): 1. Karnataka 40.62; 2. Railways 40.67; 3. Services 41.14;
4x400m (30): 1. Services 3:11.37; 2. Railways 3:14.54; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:16.28;
Women:
100m (28) [w: -2.2]: 1. Saraswati Saha (Railways) 11.70; 2. K.M. Greeshma (Kerala) 12.09; 3. Rakhi Saha (Railways) 12.17;
200m (30) [w: 0.2]: 1. Saraswati Saha (Railways) 23.75; 2. Poonam Tomar (Railways) 24.35; 3. Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Police) 24.68;
400m (29): 1. Pinki Pramanik (Railways) 54.19; 2. Jincy Philips (Police) 54.22; 3. Satti Geetha (Railways) 54.71;
800m (30): 1. Sunita Khanojia (Railways) 2:07.65; 2. Pinki Pramanik (Railways) 2:09.05; 3. Ramala Devi (Punjab) 2:09.78;
1500m (28): 1. Sunita Rani (Police) 4:17.57; 2. Sunita Khanojia (Railways) 4:33.01; B. Hemalatha (Railways) 4:36.36;
5000m (29): 1. Madhuri Gurnule (LIC) 17:13.91; 2. Pushpa Devi (Railways) 17:19.96; 3. Geetha Roy (Police) 17:53.92;
10,000m (30): 1. L. Aruna Devi (Railways) 36:07.3; 2. Madhuri Gurnule (LIC) 36:17.2, 3. Pushpa Devi (Rlys) 36:26.7;
3000m SC (30): 1. B. Hemalatha (Railways) 11:07.65; 2. Jaswinder Kaur (Railways) 11:11.18; 3. L. Manjula (Karnatka) 11:22.81;
100-H (29) [w: -2.3]: 1. K.N. Priya (Tamil Nadu) 14.02; 2. Soma Biswas (Railways) 14.03; 3. J.J. Shobha (Railways) 14.32;
400-H (28): 1. Chitra K. Soman (Jharkhand) 59.31; 2. Roseline Arokiamary (Railways) 59.57; 3. Rajwinder Kaur (Police) 59.95;
HJ (29): 1. Sahana Kumari (Railways)1.75; 2. M. Sangeeta (Tamil Nadu) 1.75; 3. Sarita Patil (Maharashtra) 1.69;
PV (28): 1. V.S. Surekha (Tamil Nadu) 3.51(National Record); 2. Karamjeet Kaur (Police) 3.30; 3. Suman (Haryana) 3.30;
LJ (30): 1. J.J. Shobha (Railways) 6.10; 2. Jetty C. Joseph (Kerala) 6.04; 3. Ruta Patkar (Jharkhand) 5.96;
TJ (29): 1. Manisha Dey (Railways) 13.16; 2. Tincy Philip (Kerala) 12.50; 3. Sahana Sulaiman (Kerala) 12.44;
SP (29): 1. N. Latha (Railways) 15.82; 2. Chaitali Paul (Railways) 14.56; 3. Reena Rodrigues (Railways) 11.99;
DT (30): 1. Neelam J. Singh (Railways) 61.17; 2. Harwant Kaur (Railways) 55.00; 3. Krishna Poonia (Railways) 52.55;
HT (28): 1. Hardeep Kaur (Punjab) 57.80; 2. Ritu Rani (Delhi) 54.37; 3. Alka Tiwari (LIC) 53.22;
JT (29): 1. Gurmeet Kaur (LIC) 51.64; 2. Suman Devi (Railways) 49.67; 3. Manisha Mandal (Railways) 45.95;
Heptathlon (30): 1. J.J. Shobha (Railways) 5733; 2. P. Bindu (Railways) 4837; 3. Soma Biswas (Railways) 4806;
20,000m walk (29): 1. Jasmine Kaur (Police) 1::48:28.8; 2. Y. Bala Devi (Railways) 1::52:38.9; 3. Ravina Antil (Haryana) 1::53:33.7;
Best athletes: Men: Naunidh Singh (Police); Women: V.S. Surekha (TN).
Team champions: Men: Services 151 points; Women: Railways 216 pts.
Overall champions: Railways 343.5 points.
