Sport - Athletics

Bahadur, Anju complete hat-tricks

By S. Thyagarajan

Bahadur Singh who won men's shot put event in the in the third National domestic circuit athletic meet in Chennai on Tuesday. — Photos: M. Moorthy.

Chennai May 7. Competition in the true sense of the term was not the chief component, and invisible was its intensity.

Yet the competitors, gearing up for the forthcoming inaugural Asian Grand Prix at Hyderabad, exuded that measure of enthusiasm and effort as to make the third and final National Circuit meet an event to enjoy for a moderate gathering basking, literally, under the floodlights at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday night.

Competitive athletics acquires that touch of aura and glamour when the stadium is bathed in lights, and that was exactly the feeling everyone had while watching the athletes strive and sail into new areas of excellence. Maybe, records were not a dime a dozen, nor expected to be so, given the truncated list of only 16 events.

The Railway stars predictably dominated the sprints, in the absence of the National champion, Anil Kumar. He is nursing an injury sustained near the finishing point during the second meet at Bangalore on Sunday last.

Anand Menezes won the event in style beating a strong challenge from colleagues, Piyush Kumar and Amit Saha. After a fairly good start, both Clifford Joshua and Tamil Nadu's Jayachandran faded leaving the field for those who accelerated near the 50-metre mark.

A good deal attention was focussed at the long jump pit where the National champion, the gangling Anju George, was expected to go for a new mark. In every attempt, there was a visible effort, as she strode through the runway to hit the board, sail gracefully in the air and land as far as away into the sand.

Anju, who opened with a spectacular 6.39m and finished with a fine leap to 6.45, has the distinction of winning the event in all the three domestic meets. She did 6.48m in Delhi and 6.30 at Bangalore.

Palpable tension ended in three false starts when the women lined up for the 100 metres. An excellent start by Poonam Tomar on lane four proved insufficient to get the lead as the diminutive Saraswathi Saha outpaced the rest on lane six. It must be mentioned that Sarawathi had won the event at Bangalore, where Poonam claimed a silver.

The withdrawal of Anuradha Biswal of Orissa owing to sudden indisposition robbed whatever interest was left in the 100m hurdles for women. However, it ensured a close finish involving Soma Biswas and Pramila Aiyappa (nee Ganapathy) with only 0.03 seconds separating them.

Judgment of pace is the essence of two lap running, and K.M. Binu, brother of K.M.Beenamol, showed this virture when winning the 800m comfortably. Led by team-mate from Kerala, Robin, in the first lap, Binu surged to the finish line in the last 50 metres, overcoming a some pressure exerted on him by Sanjeeb, to finish with a time of 1:49.20s.

In the men's javelin, star thrower, Jagdish Bishnoi, opened with a splendid 72.12m but progressively faded away to give the initiative to Fazal Ansari of Services and the latter's 73.29m decided the gold. Fazal's sequence of 70.75, 73.29, 71.78, 71.64 conveys the measure of his consistency.

Burly Bahadur Singh completed a hat-trick of wins in the shot put, touching the best here tonight, a distance of 19.61m. This bettered the Delhi mark of 19.13m and the Bangalore mark of 19.48m. Interestingly, Bahadur touched the peak in his first throw. Shakti Singh, who has the national record at 20.42 m managed only a 18.88m

Harwant Kaur lowered the colours of the more reputed Neelam J. Singh in the women's discus throw with a 58.81m final attempt. Actually, Neelam had the best throw in the first try at 58.47 but lost the edge to the more consistent Harwant.

Earlier, the meet was inaugurated by Mr. Walter I. Dawaram, President, Tamil Nadu Amateur Athletics Association, in the presence of Mr. Lalit Bhanot, Secretary, Amateur Athletics Federation of India.

The results:

Men: 100 metres: 1.Anand Menezes (Railways) 10.55s, 2. Piyush Kumar (Railways) 10.59s, 3.Amit Saha (Railways) 10.62s; 400m: A race: 1. Bhupinder Singh (Haryana) 46.33s, 2. P. Ramachandran (TN) 46.45s; 3. Manojlal (Railways); B race: 1. Anil Rohit (Services) 47.87s, 2. Shivpratap Singh (ONGC) 48.60s, 3. T.G. Ajesh (Services) 48.74s; 800m: 1. K.M. Binu (Railways) 1:49.20s; 2. Sanjeeb (Kerala) 1:49.67s, 3. Tej Karan (Railways) 1:50.86s; 5000m: 1. Shivananda (Railways) 14:36.59s, 2. Gojan Singh (Police) 14:41.67s, 3. Jagnath Lakhde (Services) 14:45.37s; Javelin throw: 1. Fazal Ansari (Services) 73.29m, 2. B.S. Dubey (LIC) 73.02m, 3. Jagdish Bishnoi (Police) 72.82m ; Shot put: 1. Bahadur Singh (Police) 19.61m, 2. Navpreet Singh (Jharkand) 19.13m, 3. Shakti Singh (Haryana); Discus throw: 1. Hirdayanand (Police) 51.23m, 2. Shakti Singh (Haryana) 54.12m, 3. Naresh Kumar (Delhi) 52.83m; Hammer: 1. P. Tiwari (UP) 63.64m, 2. Nirbhey Singh (Services) 62.58m, 3. Vinod Kumar (UP) 62.52.

Women: 100m: 1. Saraswathi Saha (Railways) 11.54s, 2. Poonam Tomar (Delhi) 11.62s, 3. Kavitha Pandey (Railways) 11.88s; 100m hurdles: 1. Soma Biswas (Railways) 14.17s, 2. Pramila Aiyappa (Karnataka) 14.20s, 3. J.J. Shoba (Andhra) 14.61s ; 400m: 1. K.M. Beenamol (Railways) 52.39s, 2. Udyalakshmi (AP), 3. Manjit Kaur (Punjab) 54.00s; 800m: 1. Madhuri A. Singh (Punjab) 2:04.53s, 2. Geeta Manral (Police) 2:07.57s, 3. Ramila Devi (Pol) 2:14.57s; Long jump: 1. Anju George (TN) 6.45m, 2. J.J. Shoba (AP) 6.24m, 3. Pramila Aiyappa (Karnataka) 6.17m; Discus: 1. Harwant Kaur (Punjab) 58.81m, Neelam J. Singh 58.47m, 3. Swaranjit Kaur (Police) 57.12m.

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