Indian Athletics – News – National Inter-State Athletics Championships Day -1 / By Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Chennai, Tamil Nadu – 4 June 2013 – It was a day of firsts in the National Inter-State Championships which commenced at the magnificent Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday.

 The day begun with a golden glow to the hosts Tamil Nadu as G. Lakshmanan, the petit 23-year-old hails from Pudukottai, clinched his maiden national title in 5,000m.  Running with his training partners Kheta Ram, Nitender Singh and Mohammed Yunus, the Pune-based Army Sports Institute cadre ran a tactical race. 

“I was running behind the leader – Nitender Singh – on the first two laps before slipped in to fourth in the remaining stages.  I made my move when 300m to finish and that worked well” a smiling Lakshmanan revealed after the race. 

For Nitender it was a great disappointment to lose it to the TN runner in a mere 0.27 secs (14:15.39 to 14:15.66) after making a clean sweep in the recent Asian Grand Prix series held at Thailand and Sri Lanka.  Md Yunus was a shade away at 14:55.68 for the third place.

 Lakshmanan, raised on the suburbs of Pudukottai with her mother, had attributed his success to his coach Loganathan.

Incidentally Loganathan’s daughter Suriya, a double gold medallist in distance running during the Open Nationals last year, has finished third (17:31.18) in the women’s race today.  “I was happy with the bronze medal as it was my first competition after recovering from jaundice”, Suriya told reporters after her tryst. 

Preeja Sreedharan, the reigning Asian Games champion in 10000m, returned to competition after a hiatus of one year came second in yet another close race in 17:28.94while her former Kerala state-mate O.P. Jaisha – now running under Punjab flag – had won the women’s 5000m title with a time of 17:27.24.

Aniruddh sprinted to first national title

Aniruddh Kalidas Gujar of Maharashtra, employed in LIC, registered his first major title at the national championships as he romped home 10.61 secs to become the fastest man of the meet.   Aniruddh, placed seventh in 100m at the Open Nationals in the same venue last year, lauded the newly laid track and promised to improve his time during the upcoming Asian championships at Pune next month. 

Tamil Nadu’s Vijaya Kumar (10.63) and Manikanda Raj (10.64), representing Andhra Pradesh, have taken the next two slots in a tight finish.

 Bengal girl Asha Roy (23), who was fifth in the last edition of the championships at Hyderabad, took the women’s crown in a similar passion clocking a noteworthy 11.86 secs. 

Pre-race favourite Merlin Joseph of Kerala was a close second in 11.90s while local star Sharadha Narayana, on a come-back trail, finished third in 11.97s.

Khyathi sets meet record in pole vault

Vaulting doctor Khyathi Vakharia avenged her defeat to Sureka Renjith (Tamil Nadu) in the women’s pole vault.  The young vaulter from Karnataka had an added joy as she eclipsed the meet record held by Sureka by scaling to 4m.    Sureka (3.90) and Kerala girl K.C. Dija (3.60) filled the next places on the podium.

 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia was an easy victor on the discus throwing arena.  Her first round throw of 56.73m was enough to decide the status as Seema Antil, expected to challenge her this evening, could not find her rhythm and hence finished with a moderate 51.70m for the silver while upcoming thrower Navjit Kaur finished on third with a throw of 47.07m.

Reigning Asian champion Mayookha Johny long jumped to 6.49m to ascertain her supremacy.  Defending champion and her Kerala state-mate M.A. Prajusha was on a distant third in 6.01m as V. Neena, representing Jharkhand, captured the silver medal with her 6.15m effort.    In the last edition at Hyderabad, Prajusha got two medals through long and triple jumps.

 In the women’s javelin throw, Suman Devi recaptured the gold medal in the Inter-State meet after a gap of seven years!  Having won the event during 2005 at Bangalore, the U.P. thrower was on the runner-up position in the last five editions.  Suman hurled the spear to 51.96m for today’s win and pushed defending champion and teammate Annu Rani (49.52m) to second spot.  Haryana’s Mukesh Kumari was third with 48.84m.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /