Punjab’s Kulwinder Singh emerged as a new hero of Indian athletics when he obliterated one of the oldest standing national records, for the Decathlon at the Indian Oil sponsored National Combined Events Challenge here on Tuesday evening (2 Aug).
Hailing from Sangrur and based at Roorkie, the 27-year-old Havaldar in Bengal Engineering Corps has had undisputed ‘six-in-a-row’ victories at the national open championships since 1999.
The silver medallist in 39th CISM World Military Athletic Championships held at Lebanon in 2001, Kulwinder had his previous best of 7285 points when he finished sixth at the Asian championships in Manila two years ago.
Jora Singh of Haryana and Mandeep Kumar of Andhra Pradesh gave the required thrust for Kulwinder in the two day event held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
At the end of first day’s competition on Monday (1 Aug) Kulwinder lead the table with 3792 points to make his intention clear for the national mark which had eluded him in the past few years.
Kulwinder who was required to clock under 4:38 in 1500m to erase Vijay Singh Chauhan’s national record of 7306 points (set during 1972 Munich Olympic Games!), clocked 4:36.88 to accumulate 700 points and thus garnered a total of 7325 points-the new Indian record. Jora Singh (7073) and Mandeep Kumar (6897) finished second and third respectively.
In a post-event press briefing Kulwinder revealed his intention to do well in the forthcoming Asian championships at Incheon, Korea and to cross 7500+ points for a victory in the next year’s Asian Games at Doha.
Sushmita excelled in Heptathlon
Bengal’s Sushmita Singharoy won back to back titles in the women’s Heptathlon. After her triumph at the senior competition in the recently concluded inter-state nationals at Bangalore, Sushmita won the Chennai event with a personal best 5419 points. Olympian and state-mate Soma Biswas (5074) and host Tamil Nadu’s Roselin Arokya Mary (4465) finished behind young Sushmita.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Results:
Decathlon:
Men: 1. Kulwinder Singh 7325 (National Record) (11.02, 670, 13.56, 184, 49.65 + 15.70, 41.21, 420, 57.75, 4:36.88); 2. Jora Singh 7073 (11.38, 666, 12.87, 181, 49.21 + 15.52, 43.93, 410, 56.60, 5:01.68); 3. Mandeep Kumar 6897 (11.09, 696, 12.12, 178, 49.22 + 15.54, 37.05, 400, 53.70, 5:05.93);
Junior Men: 1. Nondisamy (Tamil Nadu) 5750; 2. B. Srinivasa Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) 5164; 3. V. Balamurali (Tamil Nadu) 4797;
Octathlon:
Youth Boys: 1. V. Deepankumar (Tamil Nadu) 4464; 2. Selvaraj (Tamil Nadu) 4376; 3. Sudhakar Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 4262;
Pentathlon:
Boys u-16: 1. S. Rajakumar (Tamil Nadu) 3597; 2. Rajiv Gandhi (Tamil Nadu) 3453; 3. Eswar Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) 3288;
Heptathlon:
Women: 1. Sushmita Singharoy 5419 (14.60, 175, 11.14, 24.89 + 591, 32.58, 2:24.80); 2. Soma Biswas 5074; 3. Roselin Arokya Mary 4465.
Junior Women: 1. Shilpa Sundar (Karnataka) 4432; 2. Dhayalini (Tamil Nadu) 3996; 3. S. Priyadarshini (Kerala) 3702;
Youth Girls: 1. Natasha Sagar (Karnataka) 4407; 2. Safina Khatum (Bengal) 4161; 3. Pavithra (Tamil Nadu) 3658;
Pentathlon:
Girls u-16: 1. Pallavi Sukumar (Karnataka) 3167 (National Age-best); 2. G.M. Aishwarya (Karnataka) 3073; 3. Niksy Joseph (Kerala) 3053.
