Soman steals the show in third leg of Indian GP circuit

Chitra K Soman clocked a personal best 57.70 to win the women’s 400m Hurdles at the third leg of AFI Indian Athletics Circuit at Gurunanak Dev Stadium here last evening (Tue 24 May).

It was hinted after the Patiala leg of the circuit that the 21-year-old Soman was expected to follow the predecessors from her home-state of Kerala like M.D. Valsamma and P.T. Usha and concentrate on the hurdles rather than the flat one lap race. 

Soman won the national title in 2003 at Bangalore (59.31) but finished a disappointing seventh place at the inaugural Afro-Asian Games at Hyderabad (61.37) later that year.  Being part of the Indian team which underwent a training stint in Ukraine last year (2004), Soman clocked an improvised 58.51 to win in the Ukraine Cup at Kiev during 29 May 2004.

The AFI officials are expecting her to win a couple of medals in next year’s Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. 

Navpreet begins his campaign

Navpreet Singh joined the fray today at Ludhiana by putting the shot to 19.82m, the second best effort of his career.  It was however a disappointing day for Ranvijay Singh, who hitherto dominated the event this year, who finished a poor fourth place with a lowly mark of 18.14m. 

Both Ranvijay and Navpreet set their career best marks of 20.26 and 19.93 respectively when they secured the top two spots in the national inter-state championships at Chennai last year. 

Jayachandran wins again

Hariharn Jayachandran retains ‘sprint king of India’ mantle.  No matter that he finished third in his pet event of 200m later, the 31-year-old Jaya surprised everyone by showing a tremendous form in 100m with a PB of 10.51.

With the Federation Cup Senior athletic championship scheduled a week later in New Delhi (1-3 June), many athletes maintained their winning streaks though not with improved performances. 

Neelam J Singh (women’s Discus Throw), Jagdish Bishnoi (men’s Javelin Throw), Ritu Rani (women’s Hammer Throw), Poonam Tomar (women’s 100m) are all expected to put on a better show in Delhi.

Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF

MEN:

100M (1.0):
1. H. Jayachandran (LIC) 10.51; 2. Piyush Kumar (Railways) 10.52; 3. Vishal Saxena (Railways) 10.57;

200M:
Race-A (0.5): 1. Piyush Kumar (Railways) 21.35; 2. H. Jayachandran (LIC) 21.67; 3. Abishek Pandey (LIC) 21.76;
Race-B (0.6): 1. Vishal Saxena (Railways) 21.21; 

400M :
1. Satbir Singh (Services) 46.71; 2. Bhupinder Singh (ONGC) 47.09; 3.
P.S. Saji (CRPF) 47.64;

800M :
1. Ghamanda Ram (Services) 1:49.63; 2. P.S. Primesh (LIC) 1:50.21; 3.
S.J. Suhesh (Services) 1:50.67;

400M Hurdles:
1. Joseph Abraham (CRPF) 51.36; 2. Patlavath Shankar (ONGC) 51.94; 3.
Kuldev Singh (Punjab Police) 52.27;

Long Jump:
1. Maha Singh (Punjab) 7.68 (1.0); 2. Rajeev Kumar (Railways) 7.44 (0.9); 3. K.J.
 Clinton (Tamil Nadu) 7.37 (1.1);

Triple Jump:
1. Pritpal Singh (Punjab Police) 15.70 (1.1); 2. Bhupinder Singh (Punjab Police) 15.69 (2.7); 3. Surabh (Uttar Pradesh) 14.90 (1.8);

Shot Put:
1. Navpreet Singh (Punjab Police) 19.82; 2. Shakti Singh (Railways)
18.53; 3. Jaiveer Singh (Services) 18.25;

Hammer Throw:
1. Kulwinder Singh (Punjab Police) 64.43; 2. Harpal Singh (Punjab Police) 63.64; 3. Madhu Kumar (Railways) 61.44;

Javelin Throw:
1. Jagdish Bishnoi (Punjab Police) 75.44; 2. Sunil Goswami (Delhi) 72.72; 3. Gurkirat Singh (Punjab Police) 72.18;

WOMEN:

100M (1.0):
1. Poonam Tomar (Railways) 11.60; 2. K.M. Greeshma (Kerala) 11.97; 3.
Mandeep Kaur (Punjab) 12.20;

200M (0.9):
1. Manjeet Kaur (Punjab Police) 23.92; 2. Rajwinder Kaur (Punjab) 23.95; 3. Shareen Thomas (Kerala) 26.06;

800M :
1. Sunita Kanojia (Railways) 2:07.34; 2. Sinimole Paulose (Tata Academy) 2:07.95; 3. Sutapa Das (West Bengal) 2:11.26;

400M Hurdles:
1. Chitra K. Soman (Railways) 57.70; 2. Baljeet Kaur (Railways) 1:01.08; 3. Sahibani Oram (Railways) 1:03.04;

Discus Throw:
1. Neelam J. Singh (Railways) 59.24; 2. Krishna Poonia (Railways) 54.99; 3. Seema Antil (Haryana) 54.37;

Hammer Throw:
1. Ritu Rani (Delhi) 54.60; 2. Ushma Singh (Delhi) 54.06; 3. Archana Bara (Bihar) 53.15;