Indian Athletics – News – 53rd National Open Athletics Championships (Day 2) – Merlin posts national mark while Sajeesh accomplished hat-trick /By Ram. Murali Krishnan /

 

Aniruddh takes this opportunity to prove that his victory in the national inter-state championships earlier this year at Chennai was no fluke as he rocketed out of the blocks in the evening’s final to finish well ahead of Tamil Nadu sprinter Suresh Sathya 10.46 to 10.66 secs.  The margin of victory (0.20 secs) was a big one at the nationals in recent times.  Abdul Najeeb Qureshi, the joint national record-holder in 100m, finished third just one hundredth of a second behind.

 

In the women’s race ONGC sprinter Dutee Chand ascertained her supremacy over experienced senior H.M. Jyothi by taking the gold 11.73 to 11.87 secs.  Railway’s Merlin K. Joseph, who surprised everyone with her 11.35 secs national record shattering show in the semis, could finish only third in 11.95 secs in the final for the bronze.

 

In a biggest upset of the day long jumper Kumaravel Prem Kumar had a hamstring injury during the finals and finished his first round leap of 7.62m.  Fancied Ankit Sharma, who led the qualifiers with 7.77m, pockets the gold with 7.73m—the same distance which he achieved for the honour in the Open Nationals three years ago at Kochi.

 

Half-milers Tintu Luka and Sajeesh Joseph lived up to their billing as Tintu retained her gold while Sajeesh made a ‘hat-trick’ of wins in 800m.  It was indeed the fifth title at the National Open for Sajeesh and fourth for Tintu.  Unlike Tintu, who got the gold in her own style, Sajeesh had to fight it out with ONGC runner Manjeet Singh right up to the wire as just one-hundredth of a second decided the victor.

 

The day also saw a surprise gold for Chandigarh state from javelin thrower Ravinder Singh.  Trained in Melbourne, where used to register 80+ marks regularly, Ravinder brought the first ever gold medal for his state in the Open Nationals.

       

Daya Ram (Services) retained the decathlon title after locked in to a see-saw battle with V.V. Raneesh (Railways).

  

Results:

 

 

MEN:

100m (w: -0.2 m/s): 1. Aniruddh Gujar (LIC) 10.46 secs, 2. S. Sathya (Tamil Nadu) 10.66, 3. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (ONGC) 10.67, 4. Amiya Kumar Mallick (Orissa) 10.69, 5. Manikanda Arumugam (Railways) 10.69, 6. Ganesh Satpute (Railways) 10.84;

 

800m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph (Railways) 1:49.50, 2. Manjeet Singh (ONGC) 1:49.51, 3. Jinson Johnson (Services) 1:50.26, 4. Ghamanda Ram (ONGC) 1:50.54, 5. Ravi Kumar (Assam) 1:53.15, 6. Mandeep Goyat (Maharashtra) 1:53.59;

 

Long Jump: 1. Ankit Sharma (LIC) 7.73m, 2. K. Prem Kumar (Railways) 7.62m, 3. Raja Oomman (Kerala) 7.37m, 4. Tanmoy Adhikari (Services) 7.37m, 5. R.S. Bijil (Railways) 7.28m, 6. Manjeet (Delhi) 7.26m;

 

Shot Put: 1. Om Prakash Singh (ONGC) 18.67m, 2. Inderjeet Singh (Haryana) 18.58m, 3. Jasdeep Singh (ONGC) 17.97m, 4. Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) 17.66m, 5. Satyendra Kumar Singh (Railways) 17.56m, 6. Sunil Kumar (Railways) 16.26m;

 

Javelin Throw: 1. Ravinder Singh (Chandigarh) 75.47m, 2. Dinesh Kumar Rao (Rajasthan) 74.62m, 3. Rajendra Singh (Railways) 72.88m, 4. K.N. Tripathi (Railways) 70.95m, 5. Dharmendra Kumar (Rajasthan) 69.69m, 6. Davinder Singh (Services) 68.13m;

 

Decathlon: 1. Daya Ram (Services) 6812 pts, 2. V.V. Raneesh (Railways) 6742, 3. Ajay Yadav (Services) 6576, 4. Ajit Singh (Haryana) 6415, 5. Abhishek Roy (Madhya Pradesh) 6129, 6. Binoy John Mathew (Services) 6117;

 

WOMEN:

100m (w: 0.0m/s): 1. Dutee Chand (ONGC) 11.73 secs, 2. H.M. Jyothi (Karnataka) 11.87, 3. Merlin K. Joseph (Railways) 11.95, 4. Srabani Nanda (Orissa) 12.06, 5. Neethu Mathew (LIC) 12.12, 6. Bhagyashree Shirke (Maharashtra) 12.21;

(Merlin clocked a new National Record 11.35 secs in semi-finals);

 

800m: 1. Tintu Luka (Railways) 2:01.87, 2. Sushma Devi (Railways) 2:03.11, 3. Sini A. Markose (ONGC) 2:03.51, 4. Jessy Joseph (Kerala) 2:06.82, 5. A. Gomathi (Tamil Nadu) 2:11.48, 6. Pratima Tudu (West Bengal) 2:15.89;

 

High Jump: 1. Reena (Police) 1.70m, 2. N.K. Siji (Railways) and Mallika Mandal (Railways) 1.65m, 4. Sonu (Haryana) 1.65m, 5. N.D. Tintu (Police) and Anitha Mathew (Kerala) 1.60m;

 

20,000m Race Walk: 1. Khushbir Kaur (ONGC) 1:45:21.47, 2. Ranjana Gupta (Police) 1:48:00.10, 3. Rani Yadav (Railways) 1:52:36.37, 4. K.J. Sandhya (Punjab) 1:53:17.31, 5. Sapna (Rajasthan) 1:54:01.18, 6. Karamjit Kaur (Punjab) 1:56:26.59;

 

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /