Babubhai Panocha en route to his Indian national record in Jamshedpur (© Athletics Federation of India)
Jamshedpur, IndiaBabubhai Panocha had a point to prove, which he did with a masterly mark when he improved his month-old national mark in 20,000m Race Walk clocking 1:23:40 to highlight the first two days of the Indian National Championships (23-24).
The result cards at last week’s CISM World Military Games showed “DNF” next to the services athlete’s name. Had he clocked what he did on Wednesday, he could have easily made the top of the podium at Hyderabad, as the winner Cui Zhide of China timed 3 seconds slower than Babubhai.
The same was the case with metric miler Chatholi Hamza. A bronze medalist in Hyderabad with a time of 3:42.84 on 16 October, Hamza registered a hand-timed 3:39.9 at Jamshedpur on Tuesday (23 Oct), which happens to be his career best to date. The winner at the World Military Games, Gideon Gathimba of Kenya, clocked 3:41.01 for the gold.
For the first time at the nationals, the first seven finishers in the men's 1500m returned with personal best timings, thanks to Nikolai Snasarev, the coach from Belarus training the Indian middle and long distance runners.
Preeja Sreedharan, the South Asian Games victor, bettered the championship record in the women’s 10,000m (33:25.0). The performances for Hamza and Sreedharan had been registered by manual time-keepers as the photo-finish camera did not arrive on the opening day (23 Oct).
National High Jump record holder Harishankar Roy (2.25m) suffered a rare defeat in a domestic meet, as his railway team-mate Benedict Starli won the event equaling his PB of 2.19m, which improved Roy’s one-year-old meet record by one cm. However, Roy led the season with a 2.21 jump at the Inter-State meet at Kolkata.
Long jumper Anju Bobby George was a notable absentee in the women’s section, while quartermiler K.M. Binu skipped the above meet among men. The events were won by Resmi Bose (6.06m) and Bibin Mathew (47.55s) respectively.
Although the country’s top women heptathletes assembled at Jamshedpur, J.J. Shobha took the title with a modest 5508 points.
In an interesting 100m battle, Railway’s Sharda inflicted a rare defeat on her compatriot Poonam Tomar to become the fastest woman of the meet in 11.83 secs. The men’s race was won by Sameer Mon of Services in 10.53s.
In contrast, Karnataka’s Poonam Bojanna won the women’s 100m Hurdles from national record-holder Anuradha Biswal 14.08 to 14.12. In a similar attempt, Pandi Muthuswamy pipped Naunidh Singh in the men’s 110m Hurdles. Singh, who had the national mark of 14.05 to his credit, clocked only 14.21 secs as against Muthuswamy’s 14.10.
The championships conclude on Friday (26) evening.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Results:
MEN:
100m (24):
1. Sameer Mon (Services) 10.53; 2. Jagdish Basak (Police) 10.57; 3. Vilas Neelgund (Railways) 10.59;
400m (24):
1. Bibin Mathew (Railways) 47.55; 2. S.K. Mortaja (Services) 47.68; 3. Srinivas Rao (Railways) 47.94;
1,500m (23):
1. Chatholi Hamza (Services) 3:39.9 (NMR) PB; 2. Sajeesh Joseph (Railways) 3:41.7 PB; 3. Pritam Bind (ONGC) 3:41.9 PB;
10,000m (23):
1. Surendra Singh (Services) 29:04.7; 2. Sandeep Batham (Railways) 29:32.4 PB; 3. Soji Mathew (Railways) 29:32.8 PB;
110m Hurdles (24):
1. P. Muthuswamy (Railways) 14.10; 2. Naunidh Singh (Police) 14.21; 3. Ranjit Randhawa (Jharkhand) 14.22;
High Jump (23):
1. Benedict Starli (Railways) 2.19 (NMR) SB; 2. Harishankar Rai (Railways) 2.15; 3=. Vinod Kumar (Ramilways) 2.03; 3=. B. Elangumaran (Tamil Nadu) 2.03;
Pole Vault (24):
1. K.P. Bimin (Railways) 4.80; 2. R. Ranjith Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 4.70; 3. Gajanan Upadhyay (Railways) 4.70;
Shot Put (24):
1. Satyendra Kumar (Railways) 18.05; 2. Om Prakash (Haryana) 17.88; 3. P.B. Giri (Services) 17.85;
Javelin Throw (24):
1. Anil Singh (Railways) 72.84; 2. Kasinath (Services) 72.29; 3. Arunkumar Patel (Railways) 69.09;
20,000m Walk (24):
1. Babubhai Panocha (Services) 1:23:40 (National Record); 2. P.S. Jalan (Services) 1:26:55; 3. Harvindar Singh (Maharashtra) 1:27:10;
WOMEN:
100m (24):
1. N. Sharda (Railways) 11.83; 2. Poonam Tomar (Railways) 12.03; 3. Nidhi (Railways) 12.03;
400m (24):
1. Satti Geetha (Railways) 54.71; 2. Mandeep Kaur (ONGC) 55.33; 3. Tintu Luka (Kerala) 55.76;
1,500m (23):
1. Sinimol Paulose (Services) 4:15.5; 2. O.P. Jaisha (Railways) 4:18.6; 3. Sushma Devi (Railways) 4:19.1; 4
10,000m (23):
1. Preeja Sreedharan (Railways) 33:25.0 (NMR); 2. Kavita Raut (Railways) 34:00.5 PB; 3. Preeti L. Rao (Railways) 36:41.5;
100m Hurdles (24):
1. Poonam Bojanna (Karnataka) 14.08; 2. Anuradha Biswal (Orissa) 14.12; 3. G.G. Pramila (Railways) 14.46;
Long Jump (23):
1. Resmi Bose (Kerala) 6.06; 2. M.A. Prajusha (Railways) 5.92; 3. J.J. Shobha (Railways) 5.88;
Triple Jump (24):
1. Kulwinder Kaur (Police) 12.84; 2. Tessymol Joseph (Railways) 12.67; 3. M.A. Prajusha (Railways) 12.44;
Discus Throw (23):
1. Krishna Poonia (Railways) 52.34; 2. Saroj Sihag (Police) 49.17; 3. Baljit Kaur (Police) 48.60;
Hammer Throw (24):
1. Ritu Rani (Railways) 55.94; 2. Archana Bara (Police) 54.69; 3. Phool Patti (Police) 50.55;
Javelin Throw (24):
1. Mukesh Kumari (Railways) 45.96; 2. Gurpreet Kaur (Haryana) 45.56; 3. Megha Pardeshi (Railways) 45.44;
Heptathlon (24):
1. J.J. Shobha (Railways) 5,508; 2. G.G. Pramila (Railways) 5,390; 3. Soma Biswas (Railways) 5,297
