Ranchi, 19 Feb 2011
Commonwealth Games bronze medalist Kasinath Naik suffered a shock defeat in the hands of 23-year-old Delhi boy Vipin Kasana in men’s javelin throw at the fourth day’s athletics competition in 34th National Games here this evening.
Vipin, a first year M.A. student in DAV College at Dehradun, pockets the gold in his very first throw of the evening which measured to 76.84m. He went on to improve it to 77.22m, a new Games Record, on the final round. It was his second best throw in career. Earlier he hurled the spear to 77.47m while winning the U.P. state meet at Allahabad last year.
Rohit Kumar from Uttar Pradesh was second in 75.03m while Kashinath Naik, representing Services, went home with a bronze in 73.14m.
Services got their first medal of the day through steeplechaser Jaiveer Singh. In an interesting battle for the top spot, Manipuri athlete Th Sanjit Luwang provided a close combat and threatened to overpower Jaiveer when the runners approached the home straight. But Jaiveer managed it with all his will and posted yet another Games Record of 8:48.68 for the gold. Luwang (8:49.29) and Jaiveer’s teammate Elam Singh (8:55.41) collected the other medals.
The team from armed forces got their second gold of the evening as their men’s sprint relay quartet of Hemant Kirulkar, M.G. Joseph, Sameer Mon and Nitin Kumar ran a splendid race to erase the third meet mark of the day clocking 39.94 secs. Andhra Pradesh (40.59) and Kerala (40.77) were the next two medalists.
The men’s 800m saw a good line-up which including meet record holder Ghamanda Ram. Kerala runner Sajeesh Joseph ran a calculated race and piped Punjab’s Satnam Singh at the post 1:48.43 to 1:48.45. Ghamanda Ram (Services) finished third at 1:49.03.
In the absence of Tintu Luka, it was an easy task for Haryana girl Sushma Devi in the women’s race. Bengal’s Pratima Tudu and N.C. Mohanal of Tamil Nadu have tried to catch up with her in the final lap. But the experienced Susha crossed the post first in 2:18.17. Pratima (2:18.42) and Mohanal (2:18.78) filled the podium.
Karnataka’s Kyathi, who scaled 3.65m, adjudged champion in women’s pole vault. Tapasi Nandy, represented Jharkhand, and Kerala vaulter K.C. Dija went away with silver (4.50m) and bronze (3.30m) medals in this event.
As expected Kerala women’s quartet of V. Shanthini, Neethu Rajan, Shamna Muhammed and P.K. Priya grabbed the title in 4x100m relay with a time of 46.49 secs. Madhya Pradesh (47.50) and Punjab (47.53) occupied the minor placings.
