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Indian Athletics - News - 3rd Lusofonia Games / Ram. Murali Krishnan / ©Indian Athletics
Indian Athletics – News – 3rd Lusofonia Games / Ram. Murali Krishnan /
Goa, India – 27 January 2014 – The entrance of the Miramar beach, where the Beach Volleyball tournament taking place, seen some busy activity on pre-dawn Monday morning with officials working on last minute adjustments to the gadgets installed and cops patrolling the streets with sniffer-dogs and sten-guns.
Not to panic, it was just for the10 KM Road Race, the last event of athletics competitions in Lusofonia Games here.
Exactly at 7:30 a.m. seven men set out on the race which held on the 5 km loop course. Fifteen minutes later six women set their foot on the same path.
Sooner five men formed the lead group and passed the first lap in 16:50 while Indian runners C.P. Shiju and Francisco D’Clemente followed them about 200m behind. When the leading bunch approach 8.5 km mark two Angolans – Alexandre and Francisco Wehunga – increased the tempo and only Euclides Varela of Cape Verde Islands managed to hang on with them. Alexandre sprinted to finish in the last 50 metres and covered the distance in 30:21 while Wehunga did so just 1 second behind him for the silver. Varela filled the podium with 30:24.
In spite of his best effort, Alexandre’s time was 7 secs slower than the Games’ Record in men’s race held by Rui Pedro Silva of Portugal since Lisbon 2009.
Earlier Alexandre had won a bronze in 5000m here on Friday wherein Wehunga finished fourth and Varela was the silver medallist.
Indian men Shiju and Clemente finished sixth and seventh respectively.
The women’s race was rather slow when compared to men’s. Claudia Pereira of Portugal did the front-running right from the start and covered the first half in 17:52 with Angola’s Ernestina Maria and Indian Swati Gadhave running closely behind her. Crisolita Silva of Cape Verde Islands along with Manisha Salunkhe, the second Indian on the fray, followed the route thereafter.
As the leading women approached their final journey towards finish, Claudia break-away from the rest and made an energetic finish in 34:40 that retained the women’s crown for her nation. Angola’s Maria finished at 35:17 for the silver while the Indian girls Swati Gadhave earned the bronze in 35:36. Manisha in fourth clocked 36:28.
Jamila Tavers of Sao Tome and Principe developed cramps and hence rode back in ambulance.
Women’s victor Claudia (aged 37) has been a regular road and cross-country runner, holding a personal best 34:09 at 10K since 2008. She took part in the ING New York Marathon last year and finished 24th.
Holder da Silva sprinted to new Games Record in 200m
Goa, India – 25 January 2014
After two days of dull and not so impressive performances, the athletics competitions in the 3rd Lusofonia Games here have returned to some notable moments on Saturday evening.
Kurt Couto of Mozambique, the winner of men’s 400m hurdles in the inaugural edition of the Lusofonia Games at Macau in 2006 but had a disappointing third place finish in Lisbon three years ago, regained champion status in his favourite event here at GMC Athletics Stadium, Bambolin.
Holding a very strong national mark of 49.02 secs, under his belt, Couto was incidentally the hot favourite to win the Gold here which he did so efficiently by aptly aided by teammate Creve Machava, who made it 1-2 for the Mozambique. The former World University Games medallist however clocked only 51.97 secs hence his Games Record 50.29s remain intact.
India’s Anu Raghavan had a run-away victory in the women’s race in 60.53 secs.
Another athlete who evolved from bronze position to the ‘numero uno’ place here was Holder da Silva of Guinea-Bissau in men’s 200m. After two bronze medals in 100 and 200m in Macau and another bronze in the longer sprint in 2009, Silva went on to win the gold with a huge margin and that too with a New Games Record time of 21.40 secs as the winner’s time of 20.64s in the Lisbon meet four years ago was wind-assisted.
Incidentally his was the first Games Record being broken at Goa and his winning margin of 0.55 secs was also the biggest ever in the Games’ history for this event.
Indian sprinter C. Renjitha takes away the women’s title in a modest 25 secs with Cape Verde Islands’ Lidiane Lopes on the outside lane taking the silver just 7/100th of a second behind.
Alberto Mamba of Moazambique completes a “distance double” by adding the 800m gold to his first day’s 1500m. Indian Lalit Mathur’s effort to catch him on the final straight went futile as Mamba won in 0.40 secs ahead of him in 1:53.96.
Angola’s Felismina, who finished second behind Indian metric miler P.U. Chitra on the opening day, went on to win the women’s 800m this evening.
Indian women took the first two places in triple jump which saw a keen contest between four competitors. Sri Lankan N.C.D. Priyadharshani, national record-holder with a PB of 13.15m, had a disappointing fourth place with a paltry 12.09m mark. Indian junior champion Bhairabi Roy and silver medallist M.A. Siva Anbarasi had ‘no mark’ on the first round. Anbarasi leaped to 12.31m on the second round to emerge as an event leader until Roy put up a better display by registering a personal best 12.48m on the fourth. Portugal’s Vanessa Rocha snatched the bronze medal with her last round 12.15m from the Lankan.
Sunday will be the rest day for athletics competitions while the 10 Km Road Races for Men and Women will be held at Miramar on Monday.
/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /
