The Hindu : Four records rewritten on final day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 06, 2003

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Four records rewritten on final day

By Our Special Correspondent

Nishan Singh of Punjab winning the 800m in the all-India Police athletic meet in Chennai on Wednesday.

Chennai March 5. Punjab and Central Reserve Police Force slugged it out on the final day to bag four gold medals each and shut out the others in the race for the top team honours. Punjab clinched the men's overall championship with 142 points and CRPF women with 140 points as the All-India Police athletic meet came to a colourful conclusion in the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalitha, at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

Punjab and CRPF dominated the meet and left the crumbs for others. Uttar Pradesh and Border Security Force collected two gold medals each on the final day, leaving nothing big for the host.

There are two segments in team championships. Punjab won the overall, which includes State teams as well as institutions like CRPF, BSF and others, and the team championship for the States too with the same points.

Uttar Pradesh finished runner-up with 44 points in the championship for States. BSF was runner-up with 106 points (five gold) in the overall category and CRPF third (three gold) with 106 points.

Like last year, Rajwinder Kaur Gill of Punjab stood out in the women's section, amassing 1116 points with a meet record to boot in the 400m. Amritpal Singh, the man who almost cleared eight metres in long jump, collected the Home Minister medal for the best athlete in the men's section with 1122 points.

There were four meet records on the final day. Two came in the men's division as Nishan Singh of Punjab set a good pace to complete the 800m in 1m 50.99s (old record: T.M. Sanjeev (CRPF), 1:51.14 in 2000) and Jijendra Singh of U.P. cleared 4.80m in pole vault (record held by Shamsher Singh (CRPF), 4.75m in 1978). The other two came in the women's category at the fag end of the day. V.T. Sindhu of CRPF emerged the fastest woman of the meet with a 11.89, pipping Mandeep Kaur of Punjab who challenged her strongly in the final stages. Sindhu broke Renu Mehta's old mark of 11.90s set in 1994. The CRPF team then outclassed Punjab and Tamil Nadu, clocking 46.48s in the 4x100m relay. It beat CSIF's old mark of 47.02m, set in 1999.

The results (all finals):

Men: Hammer throw: 1. Rakesh Kumar (U.P.), 65.32m, 2. Harpal Singh (Punjab), 3. Anoop Singh Yadav (CISF); Triple jump: 1. Bhupinder Singh (Punjab), 15.64m, 2. Pritpal Singh (Punjab), 3. R. Surendran (CRPF); Pole vault: 1. Jijendra Singh (UP), 4.80m — meet record, 2. V.V. Geesh Kumar (CISF), 3. Shamsher Singh (CRPF); 800m: 1. Nishan Singh (Punjab), 1:50.09, 2. Himalendra Patel (MP), 3. R.K. Munir (CRPF); 5,000m: 1. Gagan Singh (BSF), 14:41.85, 2. Aman Saini (Punjab), 3. Sashi Prakash (UP); Decathlon: 1. Ravinder Pal Singh (Punjab), 6878 points, 2. Jora Singh (BSF), 3. Dharampal Singh (BSF); 100m: 1. Jagadish Basak (BSF), 10.62s, 2. Vikas Prasher (Pun), 3. T. Goyal (CISF); 4x400m relay: 1. Punjab (3:11.68), 2. BSF, 3. CRPF.

Women: High jump: 1. A.K. Deepa (CRPF), 1.73m, 2. Sukhdeep Kaur (Punjab), 3. Divya (CRPF); Shot put: 1. Saroj Shinag (CRPF), 14.51m, 2. Binita Kumari (CRPF), 3. Jyoti S. Nair (Jharkhand); 100m: 1. V.T. Sindhu (CRPF), 11.89 — meet record, 2. Mandeep Kaur (Pun), 3. Deepinder Kaur (Pun); 4x100m relay: 1. CRPF (46.48 — meet record), 2. Punjab, 3. Tamil Nadu.

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