Ranchi, 18 Feb 2011
Tamil Nadu’s J. Surendhar and M.M. Anchu of Kerala delivered their bests to earn their first-ever titles in senior grade at the national level in the 34th National Games at Birsa Munda Stadium here this evening.
Running under ideal conditions, the Kerala hurdler had little challenge from Punjab’s Arvinda Ratwha at the initial stages of the race. However she delivered a strong finish, clocking a career best 14.09 secs, to annex the gold in the women’s 100m hurdles. Ratwha (14.27) and Karnataka girl P.M. Manju (14.85) claimed the next two spots.
The country’s top-rung hurdlers, except the national record holder Siddhanth Thingalaiah, were lined up in the men’s 110m hurdles final. Tamil Nadu athlete Krish Beethovan reacted quickly at the start. However it was his state-mate Surendhar and Sandeep Parmar of Maharashtra who made amends quickly and moved ahead when the race was half-way through. With just three hurdles to clear and the finish-line fast approaching, Surendhar pushed forward himself and has come home victor in 14.46 secs. Sandeep along with Ratheesh Kumar of Services and Beethovan crossed the finish-line together. Parmar (14.61) and Ratheesh (14.62) got through to podium while Beetho left disappointed with a time of 14.63 secs.
Earlier in the morning national record holder Deepmala Devi, representing Jharkhand like Gurmeet Singh, walked to gold in 1 hr. 43 min and 4 secs. Gaurav Kumari from Maharashtra was just 27 secs behind for the silver while Manipur’s L. Sarda got the bronze in 1:49:10.
In the women’s high jump, national champion Sahana Kumari (Karnataka) missed a chance to improve the meet mark by just 1 cm. She was a clear winner at 1.81m. Kerala jumper K.C. Chandana and Bengal’s Mallika Mondal had an identical 1.76m clearance. However the former awarded the silver medal as she had less number of failures in all her attempts.
Priyanka and Harvinder post Games Records
Although appeared on the start-list, Asian Games gold medalist Sudha Singh was a non-starter in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. However the race witnessed an interesting tussle between Haryana’s Kiran Tiwari and U.P. girl Priyanka Singh Patel. They ran a marvelous final lap, cleared each barrier together, and Priyanka conquered the last 20m with a strong run to post a new Games Record time of 10:40.81. Tiwari was second at 10:41.19, also bettered the previous mark of 10:56.35 set by Sudha Singh at the last national games.
In the men’s hammer throw, Asian junior champion Harvinder Singh Dagar posted a new Games mark throwing the ball and chain to 66.79m. His teammate from Uttar Pradesh, Chandrodaya Narayan Singh, a hot favourite for the top spot, finished second with a throw of 65.22m. The bronze went to Delhi’s Nirbhay Singh in 61.99m.
Ankit Sharma gave Madhya Pradesh a proud moment as he snatched the men’s long jump title. His last round jump of 7.61m decided the crown. Punjab’s Shamsher Pratap Singh (7.59) and Tamil Nadu jumper K. Prem Kumar (7.58) were the other two medalists. National champion Maha Singh ended with a fifth place finish as his best jump of the evening measured to 7.53m.
