Rakesh Kumar surpassed the three year old national mark in Hammer Throw by heaving the implement to 70.16m on last Thursday at Bangalore to become the new hero of Indian Grand Prix Circuit athletic meets.
Distance runner Kuldeep Kumar got a creditable triple, by winning the 3000m at Nagercoil and Bangalore, and the 5000m at Chennai.
Rakesh, who won the first two legs of the national circuit, however failed to repeat the show today (19 July) as he fouled all the four throws at Chennai's Nehru Stadium.
The circuit meets, normally used as the selection trials for Indian athletes for various international competitions, drew little attention this season as some of the nation's top athletes opted to stay away for training reasons.
Busan Asian Games winner Anju B. George (with two identical personal bests of 6.74m each), currently training under Larry Myricks at California, opted to compete with world class athletes at the European Circuit.
Sydney Olympic semi-finalist K.M. Beenamol and Heptathlon record holder Soma Biswas remain in their training bases in order to save their stamina for the forthcoming Federation Cup Athletic Meet (to be held at Hyderabad during this month end) which happens to be the Final Selection Trials for the Indian athletes wishing to gain a berth for the Paris World CHmapionships.
Mention must be made of on the middle distance runner Madhuri A. Singh, another triple winner at this circuit with 800m titles at Nagercoil and Chennai and the metric mile at Bangalore, as she returned a creditable time of 2:06.0 today at Chennai without much competition.
High Jumper Bobby Aloysius, silver medalist in the Asian Championships (Colombo) and Asian Games (Busan) last year and fourth place finisher at the Manchester Commonwealth Games was the one athlete who could not come up to the expectations.
Bobby, who has had a training stint in Finland and Russia in the last two years and has just returned from a short training in England, failed to attain the qualifying standard of 1.92m for the Paris meet. During her stay in England she took part four competitions, winning two and finished second in other could not go over 1.80m both at Bangalore and Chennai. Notwithstanding the fact that she holds the national record at her name with 1.90m set at Bangalore last year and having the capability to sail over the world championship norm, she is confident of making it at the Federation Cup later this month.
National junior record holder Ruta Patkar (6.25m) conquered the long jump at Bangalore with a respectable distance of 6.16m.
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
RESULTS:
NAGERCOIL, 10 July 2003
Men:
100m: 1. Sandeep Sarkaria 10.89; 2. Piyush Kumar 10.94; 3. Amit Saha 11.01;
200m: 1. Abhishek Pandey 22.02; 2. Amit Saha 22.06; 3. Surinder Singh 22.45;
400m: 1. Bhupinder Singh 48.65; 2. K. Suresh 48.65; 3. Satish Paul 49.06;
800m: 1. P.S. Primesh 1:54.91; 2. S.J. Suresh 1:55.22; 3. Ghammada Ram 1:55.97;
3000m: 1. Kuldeep Kumar 8:30.36; 2. Arun D'Souza 8:32.25; 3. I.A. Shivananda 8:33.12; SP: 1. Kuldeep Singh Mann 18.50; 2. Jaiveer Singh 18.22; 3. Ranvijay Singh 18.17;
HT: 1. Rakesh Kumar 66.89; 2. Birkaran Singh 64.12; 3. Pramod Tiwari 64.02;
JT: 1. Lijish Kumar 70.38; 2. Ramandeep Singh 68.74; 3. Avtar Singh 66.70;
Women:
100m: 1. Rakhee Saha 11.80; 2. Poonam Tomar 12.00; 3. K.M. Greeshma 12.10;
800m: 1. Madhuri A. Singh 2:12.86; 2. C. Latha 2:14.35; 3. Tejinder Kaur 2:21.53;
DT: 1. Neelam J. Singh 57.60; 2. Krishna Poonia 53.31; 3. Harwant Kaur 52.97;
BANGALORE, 17 July 2003
Men:
100m: 1. Anil Kumar 10.40; 2. Sanjay Ghosh 10.50; 3. Mohd. Mudassir 10.57;
400m: 1. Anil Kumar Rohil 47.20; 2. Satbir Singh 47.46; 3. P.S. Primesh 47.53;
3000m: 1. Kuldeep Kumar 8:25.88; 2. I.A. Shivananda 8:27.28; 3. Sunil Kumar 8:30.68;
110h: 1. Manjunath B. Godi 14.69; 2. Prasad Reddy 14.77; 3. Sandeep Parmar 14.95;
HJ: 1. Omveer Singh 2.05; 2. M. Lorance 2.05; 3. K.R. Roshan 2.05;
TJ: 1. Amarjeet Singh 15.39; 2. P.J. Vinod 14.85; 3. Sukhjinder Singh 14.71;
SP: 1. Jaiveer Singh 18.77; 2. Kuldeep Singh Mann 18.26; 3. Malkhan Singh 17.60;
DT: 1. Gursewak Singh 51.57; 2. Amardeep Singh 51.48; 3. Amritpal Singh 51.48;
HT: 1. Rakesh Kumar 70.16 (National Record); 2. Pramod Tiwari 66.40;
JT: 1. Ramandeep Singh 72.10; 2. Lijesh Kumar 72.04; 3. Avtar Singh 68.65;
10000mW: 1. Gurmit Singh 45:22.68; 2. Vipin Kumar 47:15.49; 3. Ratan Singh 48:37.92;
Women:
200m: 1. J.J. Shobha 24.17; 2. Rakhee Saha 24.31; 3. S. Geetha 24.61;
400m: 1. Manjeet Kaur 54.09; 2. Kalpana Reddy 54.75; 3. Sagardeep Kaur 54.97;
1500m: 1. Madhuri A. Singh 4:31.36; 3. Hemaltha 4:32.01; 3. C. Latha 4:41.49;
HJ: 1. Bobby Aloysius 1.80; 2. Sahana Kumari 1.73;
LJ: 1. Ruta Patkar 6.16; 2. J.J. Shobha 6.12; 3. P. Bindu 5.76;
DT: 1. Neelam J. Singh 58.95; 2. Harwant Kaur 56.63; 3. Seema Antil 53.13;
HT: 1. Ritu Rani 57.17; 2. Rajwinder Kaur 53.33; 3. S. Shanthi 43.52;
10000mW: 1. Y. Bala Devi 52:01.98; 2. Raveena Antil 53:37.50; 3. Jasmin Kaur 54:09.62
CHENNAI, 19 July 2003
Men:
100m: 1. Sanjay Ghosh 10.52; 2. Amit Saha 10.65; 3. Piyush Kumar 10.69;
400m: 1. Anil Kumar Rohil 47.43; 2. Satbir Singh 47.77; 3. K. Suresh 47.92;
800m: 1. P.S. Primesh 1:52.45; 2. Ghamanda Ram 1:53.89; 3. Tejkaran Singh 1:56.32;
5000m: 1. Kuldeep Kumar 14:43.00; 2. I.A. Shivananda 14:44.62; 3. Arun D'Souza 14:45.30;
110h: 1. Prasad Reddy 14.79; 2. Manjunath B. Godi 14.96; 3. Sandeep Parmar 14.97;
SP: 1. Jaiveer Singh 18.57; 2. Kuldeep Singh Mann 17.10; 3. Malkhan Singh 16.71;
HT: 1. Nirbhay Singh 65.55; 2. Birkaran Singh 64.30; 3. Gurinderjeet Singh 63.56;
JT: Ramandeep Singh 74.78; 2. Lijesh Kumar 73.20; 3. Avtar Singh 64.25;
Women:
100m: 1. Rakhee Saha 12.08; 2. K.M. Greeshma 12.19; 3. Mandeep Kaur 12.24;
400m: 1. Manjeet Kaur 53.73; 2. S. Geetha 54.38; 3. Kalpana Reddy 54.76;
800m: 1. Madhuri A. Singh 2:06.0; 2. C. Latha 2:09.0; 3. Hemalatha 2:09.4;
HJ: 1. Bobby Aloysius 1.80; 2. Sahana Kumari 1.73; 3. M. Sangeetha 1.70;
DT: 1. Harwant Kaur 57.76; 2. Krishna Poonia 53.68; 3. Seema Antil 51.31;
HT: 1. Ritu Rani 54.01; 2. Rajwinder Kaur 45.33; 3. S. Shanthi 44.24;
