Ranchi, 17 Feb 2011
Hosts Jharkhand was full of cheers as they received their first athletics gold medal through walker Gurmeet Singh as he posted a new Games record 1:23:26 to win the men’s 20 KM walk today. The above time was just 20 secs shy of the national record set by Babubhai Panocha during the World championships at Berlin in 2009.
The race could have been more interesting had national record holder Panocha was allowed to take part this morning. After arriving at the starting point, Panocha opted to stay out in order to allow his teammates from Services to claim medal. Incidentally there was an argument between the Services team officials and Panocha, who is working in the forces but entered under the Gujarat banner here citing cash incentive for winning medals from the state association. Finally he walked off from the field and thus lost a chance to win the top spot and to improve his national mark.
Gurmeet, started race walking ten years ago as a junior, delivered his career best today but had to ask for medical assistance at the end. He will be taking part in the Asian race walking championship scheduled to be held at Nomi City, Japan, next week and expected to bring laurels to the nation. Gurmeet represented Assam at the last National Games and was a bronze medalist at Guwahati in 2007.
Maniram Patel of Madhya Pradesh (1:24:51) and Somendra Singh of Services (1:27:11), who came second and third respectively, along with the first six finishers have also bettered the previous national games record of 1:29:39 by Gurdev Singh of Punjab set ten years ago in Ludhiana.
Sameer, Jyothi fastest
Services team got its first athletics gold through Sameer Mon. The final line-up included joint national record holder Abdul Najeeb Qureshi of Andhra Pradesh among others. But Sameer got the best start and accelerated well towards the finish-line like an arrow out from the archer’s bow. His winning time of 10.55 secs was just a shade away from the meet mark (10.52s) but Sameer thanked the almighty for his third successive victory at the same venue. Qureshi finished second clocking 10.62 secs while the national junior champion Sujith Kuttan from Kerala piped Hemant Kirulkar (Services) for the bronze medal in 10.65s.
Karnataka’s H.M. Jyothi adjudged the fastest woman of the Games. Andhra Pradesh’s national inter-state champion Satti Geetha was the first athlete to react to the starter’s gun. However the experienced Jyothi catch-up with the leader easily and spurt in front of others just 10m to finish and snatched the gold medal in 11.84 secs. Here again an upcoming junior from Andhra Pradesh, G. Mounika, proved her mettle by taking the silver in 11.87 secs. Priyanka Panwar of Uttar Pradesh got the bronze in 11.98 secs while Geetha finished fourth at 12.11s. Although satisfied with her victory here, Jyothi complained the foul weather for her slow timing.
The Andhra camp was in full of cheers as P. Udaya Lakshmi took the early lead in women’s shot put right from the first round. Her fourth round throw of 14.36m fetch her the gold medal. Haryana’s Neelam (13.77m) and Goan girl Steffi Cardozo (13.69m) were filled the podium in this event.
Services got the second gold of the evening through Kunju Mohammed. In a closely contested race, the services runner outclassed arch rival Bibin Mathew to secure the top spot in 47.68 secs. Running for the hosts Jharkhand, Bibin clocked 47.86 secs for the second spot while Haryana’s Ajay settled with the bronze medal in 47.94 secs.
As expected Kerala athletes were 1-2 in women’s 400m. Sini Jose, a member of gold winning Indian team at last year’s Commonwealth Games at New Delhi and the Asian Games in Guangzhou, led a star studded field to win the women’s crown in 53.76 secs. Her teammate C. Arya pushed upcoming Andhra athlete K. Mrudula and Anu Mariam Jose (Jharkhand) to minor places to take the silver in 54.21 secs. Mrudula earned the bronzed medal in 54.69s.
The women’s javelin throw gold went to Suman Devi of Uttar Pradesh who set out the spear to 51.84m on her penultimate attempt after trailing in the second place behind Tamil Nadu’s Sundarm Saraswathy till that round. Saraswathy’s best of the day (51.69m) was enough for the silver while Himachal athlete Sanjo took the third spot with a throw of 48.52m.
