Coimbatore, India – The sport-loving Coimbatoreans, around five thousand of them who gathered at Nehru Stadium, cheered India’s newfound distance runner Surinder Singh who produced one of his best performances in the 5000m to highlight the second leg of Indian Grand Prix which concluded here in Coimbatore on Friday (8) night. 

Singh, who shattered Harichand’s 32-year-old national mark in 10,000m last year, took advantage of the newly laid synthetic track and clocked 13:49.60, his second best ever on Indian soil. In last year’s season-opener, the Indian GP at Patiala, Singh timed 13:46.47 before improving his PB to 13:45.77 later in June at Solihull during a training stint in Europe.    

Region's long athletics tradition

Coimbatore has a long tradition in athletics. The Coimbatore Athletic Association, formed in 1920 by British officers worked in this region, used to conduct the “Coimbatore Olympics” wherein athletes from various parts of India were invited to take part.

The Amateur Athletics Union have organised the annual LRG Naidu Memorial All-India invitational athletic meets between 1971 and 1984, while Coimbatore Athletic Club conducted C Nataraja Gounder memorial meets later. 

In 1995, prior to the South Asian Federation Games, Coimbatore Athletic Club took the tall responsibility of conducting the National Circuit Athletic Meet (which has since been renamed the Indian Grand Prix) and did it in an exemplary manner considering the limited number of resources available to a small club of its stature.

Although the city conducted a number of provincial and varsity championships besides a regular flow of inter-department competitions, big-time athletics returned to Coimbatore only on Friday. 

The wards of a decade-old Kovai Athletic Club, which produced quite a number of junior national champions, were the immediate beneficiaries from the Grand Prix meet.  “Our athletes received the much required motivation and also learnt some organizational skills by taking part in various voluntary works here,” explained S. Srinivasan, the coach-cum-secretary of the Club.    

Personal bests

Although none of the athletes competing here attained the qualifying norms for the Berlin World Championships, several of them returned with decent improvements on their career bests. Notable among them were quarter-miler Bibin Mathew, high jumper Jitin Thomas and long jumper M.A. Prajusha. 

With the Athens Olympic semi-finallist K.M. Binu returning to competition after a hiatus, the men’s 400m provided some expectations to his fans who gathered here in large number. However, the inspired Kochi winner Mathew clocked an impressive 46.47 secs to extend his winning-streak.  Binu, the national record holder at 45.48 secs in a late surge clocked only a paltry 47.31 to settle for third.  “I just returned to the track and it was my first race of the season,” revealed Binu, assuring his best will come later in June during the Federation Cup at Chennai. 

There were just two competitors in the women’s Long Jump field.  With the former World Long Jump bronze medallist Anju Bobby George looking on from the stands, M.A. Prajusha and Reshmi Bose battled it out for the top spot.  Prajusha added 1 cm to her PB to win the event. 

Jitin Thomas, the services high jumper, soared past others to win the the event with a career best 2.15m. Last year’s Asian junior champion Lakshman Yogaraj and state-mate Benedict Starly failed to accomplish their goal despite good home support.   

Upsets galore

Triple jumper Amarjeet Singh, with a silver winning PB of 16.77m at the Asian GP in Korat last year, disappointed everyone with a forgettable 15.19m here.  Railway’s Deepan Kumar with a modest 15.77m jump took the gold in this event. 

Chitra K. Soman, one of the top 400m runners among women in India, ran a poor race and had to be content with a fourth place finish at 57.87 secs in Race “A” which was won by K Mridula in 55.76.  Tintu Luka, the new sensation and prodigy of evergreen P.T. Usha, however put up a grand show by winning the “B” race in 54.81 secs for her first major victory at a senior competition.  Favourite Mandeep Kaur abstained from the competition.    

In yet another upset, Kavita Raut inflicted a rare defeat on Preeja Sreedharan in the women’s 5000m. 

There was something of joy for the small crew of a four-member Malaysian team when Adi Aliffudin Hussain took third in the men’s Shot Put. India’s Satyender Kumar Singh was an easy victor in 18.20m in the absence of Om Prakash Singh.

Prakash heaved the iron ball to a personal best 19.74m to win the first leg of Indian GP at Kochi but had to skip the Coimbatore event in order to compete at the Doha Super Grand Prix held at the same night.  In Doha, however, he left at the bottom of the score card with “no mark".

Sprinters Abdul Najeeb Qureshi and H.M. Jyothi have added another feather in their caps with wins in the 200m with personal best timings.  Discus throwers Simranjit Singh and Krishna Poonia along with javelin thrower Kashinath Naik also repeated their wins with improved show at Coimbatore.

The third leg of the Indian GP will be held at Chennai on 14 May.

Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF

Leading Results (all Indians, unless stated):

MEN -
200m:
Race-A (-1.5): 1. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (ONGC) 21.25; 2. Vilas Neelgund (Rly) 21.57; 3. Ritesh Anand (Jhar) 21.64;
Race-B (-2.0): 1. S. Sathya (IB) 22.04; 2. Sameer Mon (Ser) 22.12; 3. P.K. Anoop (Ker) 22.85;

400m:
Race-A: 1. Bibin Mathew (Rly) 46.47; 2. S.K. Mortaza (WB) 47.26; 3. K.M. Binu (Ker) 47.31;
Race-B: 1. P.S. Srejith (Ker) 48.20; 2. Jithin Paul (Ker) 48.33; 3. Dharambir (Har) 49.71;

1500m:
1. Chatholi Hamza (Ser) 3:45.34; 2. Ghamanda Ram (ONGC) 3:49.35; 3. Ravinder Bharadwaj (Rly) 3:50.81;

5000m:
1. Surinder Singh (Ser) 13:49.60; 2. Sandeep Batham (Rly) 14:08.50; 3. Elam Singh (Ser) 14:09.13;

400m hurdles:
1. Joseph G. Abraham (Rly) 50.88; 2. Kuldev Singh (PP) 51.43; 3. Avin A. Thomas (Rly) 51.90;

High Jump:
1. Jitin C. Thomas (Ser) 2.15; 2=. Harishankar Roy (Rly) 2.10; 2=. Benedict Starli (TN) 2.10;

Triple Jump:
1. Deepan Kumar (Rly) 15.77; 2. Saurabh Singh (Pol) 15.61; 3. Amarjeet Singh (Rly) 15.19;

Shot Put:
1. Satyender Singh (Rly) 18.20; 2. Naveen Singh (Rly) 16.61; 3. Adi Aliffudin Hussain (Malaysia) 16.00;

Discus Throw:
1. Simranjit Singh (BSF) 54.07; 2. Vikas Punia (raj) 50.60; 3. Kripal Singh (Pun) 50.37;

Javelin Throw:
1. Kashinath Naik (Ser) 73.83; 2. Rohit Kumar (UP) 71.86; 3. Anil Kumar (Rly) 68.77;

4 x 100m relay:
1. National "Select" Team-A 40.2; 2. National "Select" Team-B 42.4; 3. Indian Bank 42.7;

WOMEN
200m (-1.5):
1. H.M. Jyothi (AP) 24.13; 2.Saradha Narayana (Rly) 24.46; 3. K. Sowjanya (AP) 24.63;

400m:
Race-A: 1. K. Mridula (AP) 55.76; 2. Priyanka Panwar (Rly) 56.65; 3. Sini Jose (Ker) 56.70; 
Race-B: 1. Tintu Luka (Ker) 54.81; 2. Pratibha (TN) 57.20; 3. Jauna Murmu (Ori) 58.70;

1500m:
1. Sushma Devi (Rly) 4:28.67; 2. Priyanka Patel (Rly) 4:29.04; 3. S.R. Bindu (Rly) 4:29.39;

5000m:
1. Kavita Raut (ONGC) 18:03.11; 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 18:06.03; 3. O.P. Jaisha (Rly) 18:12.08;

Long Jump:
1. M.A. Prajusha (Ker) 6.34/0.1; 2. Reshmi Bose (Rly) 6.28/0.0; (only two competitors);

Discus Throw:
1. Krishna Poonia (Rly) 58.95; 2. Seema Antil (CRPF) 5.35; 3. Harwant Kaur (PP) 54.01;

4 x 100m relay:
1. National "Select" Team-A 46.88; 2. National "Select" Team-B 47.23; 3. Indian Bank 48.21