Indian Athletics – News – Gurmeet improved national walk record – By Ram. Murali Krishnan

Patiala (Punjab), 3 May 2011 – The first leg of the Indian Grand Prix which held at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports grounds here on Tuesday evening marked the season opener for 2011 in Indian athletics.  Notwithstanding the fact that the National Games held at Ranchi just over two months ago has delivered quite a good performances in athletics, every track buff in the country paid more attention on the happenings at Moti Bagh today as they proved to be an assessment trials for the Indian campers who are training at this elite institute for the past several weeks.

As much as sixteen events (eight each for men and women) were on the cards for the evening's proceedings.  However the men's 20 Km Race Walk, a non-GP event, held earlier on the day grabbed everyone's attention as the 26 year old Gurmeet Singh, representing Jharkhand, has posted his official national mark in this event with a splendid time of 1 hour 20 minutes and 35 seconds. Gurmeet's time eclipsed the national record of 1:23:06 held by Babubhai Panocha since 2009.  

Earlier this year, Gurmeet equaled Panocha's world championship performance while winning the all-india inter-railways' meet at Chennai.  Traveled under trying conditions during the Tsunami hit days at Japan, Gurmeet finished seventh in this year's Asian race walking championship at Nomi City clocking a modest 1:25:43.  A jubilant Gurmeet vowed to secure a medal in this year's Asian athletics championships at Kobe coming July.  

The continental meet also much important for him as it is one of the competitions approved by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to achieve qualifying standard for the ensuing World Championships at Daegu (Korea) this August and the Olympic Games at London next year.

Fresh from his victory in this year's Punjab Games at Chandigarh, Shamsher Pratap Singh snatched the long jump gold with an excellent 7.77m leap.   At Chandigarh in two months ago he registered a personal best 7.84m.  His state-mate Maha Singh could manage only 7.46m for silver while Haryana's Bharat Inder Singh settled with a bronze medal with a jum

Some track events, including the men's 100m, were held as ‘time-trial'.  In the men's sprint race, Maharashtra's Krishna Kumar Rane clocked 10.66 secs to secure the top spot among the contestants.  Army lad Hemant Kirulkar (10.74s) and Uttar Pradesh's Vishal Saxena (10.86s) clocked the next two bests.  National Games gold medalist Sameer Mon clocked only a paltry 10.87 secs and hence finished outside the podium. 

Similarly the men's 400m also ran as ‘time-trial' in which S.K. Mortaza (West Bengal) clocked 47.71 secs to become top among the 15 athletes who took part in this event. 

With some of the country's top-rung athletes stayed away, 18-year-old Andhra Pradesh junior Mounika Gaddam sizzled through women's 100m to come home at 12.12 secs.  Punjab girl Mandeep Kaur (12.35s) and Karanataka's Rebacca Jose (12.43s) finished behind her.

As expected Mandeep Kaur was best among the women's quarter-milers as she timed 55.97 secs for the gold in 400m. 

Army's Jithin Thomas (2.10m) and Rajasthan's Vikas Poonia (49.21m) have won the men's high jump and discus throw events respectively.

Mayookha wins triple jump

Returning to her favourite venue, triple jumper Mayookha Johny of ONGC delivered her second best ever performance with a hop, step and jump of 13.65m in a small field of three athletes.  Hails from Kerala, Mayookha posted a national mark of 13.68m while winning the national inter-state championships here in last August but could not do well at the Commonwealth Games following an injury.  However her performance today was highly commendable as virtually there was no competition for her this eve

Shradha Ghule of Maharashtra, the reigning Commonwealth Youth Games champion, landed at 12.39m for silver while an unheralded Shalu Chaudhry of Delhi got the bronze in 11.64m. 

As the delightful trio of Indian discus throwers (Krishna Poonia, Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil) abstained in the first leg, Punjab's Amanpreet Kaur got the top honour by set out the disc to 45.79m.  In the javelin throw, UP girl Suman Devi was once again a topper by hurling the spear to 47.60m.

The men's 800m saw the return of Ghamanda Ram, a former services runner now running under ONGC banner, clocked 1:48.87 for the victory. 

At the end as much as five events (men's 110m hurdles and triple jump, women's 800m, 100m hurdles and high jump) had to be cancelled due to lack of entries. 

The second leg of the Indian Grand Prix will be held at the same venue on May 7. 

 

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /