Preeja Sreedharan at a very wet Indian champs (© Ram. Murali Krishnan)
Rain marred the four days of the 48th Open National Athletic Championships, which concluded at the Maharaja's College Stadium at Kochi on Thursday (11 Sep).
Normally a post-Olympic national competition will not throw-up any keen competition. However the chance to make the Indian team in the ensuing Asian All-Stars athletic meet at Bhopal (18 Sep) and the usual inter-departmental rivalry meant athletes showed some enthusiasm at this meet.
Returning to Kochi, the "home of Indian athletics" after a long gap of 23 years, the Open Nationals saw one national record being bettered and several personal bests returned by juniors.
Despite the rain, Preeja Sreedharan took a distance double at 5000m and 10,000m. Hailing from an economically poor family, the Beijing Olympian has shown tremendous improvement in the recent years. In one of her recent ventures she won the One Million Indian Rupees prize purse in Chennai Half-Marathon. The tiny ever-smiling girl ran the last individual event of the championships in heavy rain throughout, returning a moderate 16:28.98 in the women's 5000m.
Kerala's Mayookha Johny, tipped as the successor to her 'idol' Anju Bobby George, won another double winner taking the Long and Triple Jumps. Starting with a 6.22m opening jump, Johny leaped to a personal best of 6.44m on her second try. After two more jumps of 6.02 and 6.30 she realised the title was already hers and hence opted to skip the last two chances.
Race walker V.S. Sandhya brought the third gold medal for the host-state.
H.M. Jyothi from Andhra Pradesh won a sprint double. Middle distance stars Sajeesh Joseph and Sinimol Paulose did so among men's and women's 800m/1500m divisions respectively.
Joseph G. Abraham, who clocked a national record 49.51 for 400m Hurdles in the 2007 Osaka Worlds, had an easy win here (50.93) and that was enough for him to snatch the ?Best Athlete' title for the champs. Double Asian Indoor champion Sinimol Paulose took the honour among the women.
In the men's 110m Hurdles, K. Krishna Mohan improved his national mark to 13.96 secs.
The Indian Railways team once again proved its supremacy by defending the overall championships title with 27 gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze medals. The Military Services team was in a distance second (6-4-8) while the hosts Kerala State finished third (3-3-5).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
Results:
MEN
100m (8) [0.3]:
1. B.G. Nagaraj (Rly) 10.74; 2. Abdul Najeeb Quereshi (AP) 10.84; 3. Ganesh Satpute (Rly) 10.85;
200m (11) [0.6]:
1. Vishal Saxena (Rly) 21.45; 2. Abdul Najeeb Quereshi (AP) 21.69; 3. Nitin Kumar (Ser) 21.79;
400m (9):
1. Bibin Mathew (Rly) 46.81; 2. Virender Kumar Pankaj (Pol) 47.35; 3. P.S. Srijith (Rly) 48.12;
800m (11):
1. Sajeesh Joseph (Rly) 1:48.85; 2. S. Prakash Verma (Del) 1:49.21; 3. Ghamanda Ram (ONGC) 1:50.34;
1500m (9):
1. Sajeesh Joseph (Rly) 3:49.95; 2. Ravinder (Rly) 3:51.00; 3. Naresh Yadav (Ser) 3:51.75;
5000m (11):
1. Sandeep (Rly) 14:23.87; 2. Ajay Kumar (Pol) 14:24.07; 3. Santosh Kumar (Rly) 14:24.54;
10,000m (8):
1. Surender Singh (Ser) 29:52.06; 2. Ajay Kumar (Pol) 29:52.48; 3. Santosh Kumar (Rly) 29:55.68;
3000m Steeplechase (10):
1. Om Prakash (Ser) 8:53.04; 2. Arun D'Souza (Rly) 8:53.36; 3. Elam Singh (Ser) 8:56.68;
110m Hurdles (10) [0.6]:
1. K. Krishna Mohan (Ser) 13.96 (National Record); 2. P. Muthuswami (Rly) 14.26; 3. Naunidh Singh (Pol) 14.27;
400m Hurdles (11):
1. Joseph G. Abraham (Rly) 50.93; 2. Avin A. Thomas (Rly) 51.25; 3. Satinder Singh (Rly) 52.32;
High Jump (10):
1. Harishankar Roy (Rly) 2.16; 2. Benedict Starley (Rly) 2.16; 3. A. Karthikeyan (TN) 2.10;
Pole Vault (10):
1. K.P. Bimin (Rly) 4.90; 2. Gajanan Upadhyaya (Rly) 4.75; 3. Naveen Kumar (Ser) 4.70;
Long Jump (9):
1. Maha Singh (Rly) 7.49/0.0; 2. Shamsher Pratap Singh (Pun) 7.39/0.0; 3. Md. Ibrar (Ser) 7.35/0.0;
Triple Jump (8):
1. Renjith Maheshwary (Rly) 15.92/0.4; 2. Bibu Mathew (Ser) 15.86/0.0; 3. Amarjeet Singh (Rly) 15.80/0.0;
Shot Put (8):
1. Om Prakash (Har) 17.70; 2. Saurabh Vij (ONGC) 17.54; 3. Avinash Vashist (Guj) 16.96;
Discus Throw (10):
1. Rambir (Ser) 53.52; 2. Simranjit Singh (Pol) 52.82; 3. Vipender Singh (Ser) 51.53;
Hammer Throw (11):
1. Joginder Singh (Rly) 62.10; 2. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (UP) 61.94; 3. Pargat Singh (Rly) 60.55;
Javelin Throw (9):
1. Anil Singh (Rly) 74.11; 2. Kashinath Naik (Ser) 72.66; 3. Purandar (Karn) 71.78;
Decathlon (9):
1. Daya Ram (Ser) 6652; 2. Ram Niwas (Rly) 6346; 3. Vijay Kumar (Ser) 6166;
20000m Walk (8):
1. Harwinder Singh (Ser) 1:35:21.38; 2. Ashok Kumar Patel (Rly) 1:35:32.20; 3. P.S. Jalan (Ser) 1:36:11.46;
4 x 100m Relay (10):
1. Railways 40.75; 2. Services 41.27; 3. Andhra Pradesh 41.52;
4 x 400m Relay (11):
1. Railways 3:11.00; 2. Services 3:11.20; 3. Tamil Nadu 3:16.47;
WOMEN
100m (8) [0.5]:
1. H.M. Jyothi (AP) 11.90; 2. P.K. Priya (Ker) 12.24; 3. N. Sudha (AP) 12.44;
200m (11) [1.6]:
1. H.M. Jyothi (AP) 24.22; 2. K. Sowjanya (AP) 24.29; 3. K. Mrudula (AP) 24.88;
400m (9):
1. Satti Geetha (Rly) 54.15; 2. K. Mrudula (AP) 55.29; 3. K. Sowjanya (AP) 55.44;
800m (11):
1. Sinimol Paulose (ONGC) 2:03.63; 2. Sushma Devi (Rly) 2:04.66; 3. Tintu Luka (Ker) 2:04.94;
1500m (9):
1. Sinimol Paulose (ONGC) 4:19.77; 2. Jhuma Khatun (Rly) 4:21.27; 3. S.R. Bindhu (Ker) 4:21.95;
5000m (11):
1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 16:28.98; 2. Kavita Raut (ONGC) 17:05.44; 3. Rajshree Patil (Rly) 18:01.59;
10000m (8):
1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 34:13.4; 2. Kavita Raut (ONGC) 36:15.3; 3. Preethi L. Rao (Rly) 36:18.7;
3000m Steeplechase (10):
1. Sudha Singh (Rly) 10:24.08; 2. Kiran Tiwari (Rly) 10:32.21; 3. Kamlesh Baghel (Rly) 11:21.76;
100m Hurdles (10) [0.4]:
1. Anuradha Biswal (Ori) 14.08; 2. J.J. Shobha (Rly) 14.25; 3. Shreema Priyadharshini (Rly) 14.29;
400m Hurdles (11):
1. Harpreet Kaur (Rly) 1:00.85; 2. K.A. Soniya (Ker) 1:01.31; 3. Shiji Joseph (Rly) 1:01.46;
High Jump (10):
1. Mallika Mondal (Rly) 1.74; 2. Tessimol Joseph (Rly) 1.74; 3. Kavya Muthanna (Karn) 1.71;
Pole Vault (9):
1. V.S. Surekha (Rly) 3.50; 2. N. Madhushini Devi (Rly) 3.40; 3. Sithara T. Ellath (Ker) 3.30;
Long Jump (11):
1. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 6.44/1.4; 2. M.A. Prajusha (Rly) 6.24/0.8; 3. Reshmi Bose (Rly) 6.16/2.4;
Triple Jump (9):
1. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 13.54/0.0; 2. Anisha K. Vijayan (Pol) 13.22/0.6; 3. Kulvinder Kaur (Pol) 12.92/-0.3;
Shot Put (11):
1. Saroj Sihag (Pol) 14.62; 2. Neelam (Har) 13.74; 3. Patwant Kaur (Rly) 13.56;
Discus Throw (8):
1. Krishna Poonia (Rly) 54.51; 2. Seema Antil (Pol) 51.32; 3. Saroj Sihag (Pol) 49.52;
Hammer Throw (9):
1. Archana Bara (Pol) 55.85; 2. Sukanya Mishra (Rly) 53.64; 3. Manju Bala (Guj) 51.46;
Javelin Throw (10):
1. S. Saraswathy (Rly) 45.21; 2. Megha Pardeshi (Rly) 44.43; 3. Ramandeep Kaur (Pun) 42.96;
Heptathlon (11):
1. Sushmita Singha Roy (Rly) 5434; 2. J.J. Shobha (Rly) 5299; 3. K.D. Sindhu (Ker) 4723;
20000m Walk (9):
1. V.S. Sandhya (Ker) 1:51:37.3; 2. Supriya Adak (Rly) 1:53:11.9; 3. Anita Kumari (Raj) 2:02:07.9;
4 x 100m Relay (10):
1. Railways 46.23; 2. Andhra Pradesh 46.69; 3. Kerala 47.32;
4 x 400m Relay (11):
1. Railways 3:43.08; 2. Kerala 3:43.85; 3. Andhra Pradesh 3:51.78
