The Hindu : Sport : Gurdev sets 50-km walk record

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 10, 2005

Sport

Sport

Gurdev sets 50-km walk record

Abhijit Sen Gupta

— Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

RECORD HIGH: V.V. Geesh Kumar of Indian Police created a new meet record in the pole vault event.

Hyderabad: Gurdev Singh of Services shattered the National record in the men's 50-km walk at the 45th National Open athletic championships here on Wednesday. Gurdev's four hours 16 minutes 22.0 seconds broke the old record held by Kishan Singh (Services) at 4:19.48.0 posted way back in 1970.

Gurdev hails from Ambala and also holds the National record in the 20-km walk. He was persuaded to go for the longer distance by coach Nikolai Snesarev of Belarus. It was felt that Gurdev has a better chance of getting international medals in the longer event. Gurdev came fourth in the Asian championship on two occasions in Jakarta and in Sri Lanka.

However, this event is not conducted regularly in the domestic meets. So it is an encouraging sign that the National record was broken almost immediately after revival of the event.

Start to finish

Gamanda Ram of Services set a new meet record in the men's 800m. He led from start to finish clocking 1:46.67. The old record was held by Avtar Singh at 1:47.58s created in 1990.

In the men's 3,000m steeplechase Arun D'Souza gave yet another fine performance to lift the gold in an event which he has dominated for no less than eight years.

"I believe in hard work and since I started my career in my home town of Chikmagalur, I began running in the hilly terrain which gave me more stamina than most of my rivals," said Arun about his consistency. His best so far is 8:50.71s which fetched him a silver in the World Railway Games in Poland (2001). But his aim now is to lower the timing to less than 8:00.40s which he feels will give him a medal in the Asian Games.

In the men's pole vault, V.V. Geesh Kumar of Police created a new meet record by clearing a height of 5.50m and becoming the fourth Indian to clear five metres in the event. The existing record stood in the name of M.A. Eldo at 5.00m set in 1990.

The results: Men: Long Jump: 1. Shivshankar (Rlys) 7.81m; 2. Rajesh (Rlys) 7.50m; 3. Maha Singh (Rlys) 7.44m; Hammer Throw: 1. Nirbhay Singh (Services) 65.85m; 2. Kulwinder Singh (Sr) (Police) 65.83m; 3. Pramod Kumar Tiwari (UP) 62.35m; 400 Hurdles: 1. Joseph Abraham (Police) 50.87s; 2. Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) 51.45s; 3. B. Nimesh (Services) 52.66s; 50-km walk: 1. Gurdev Singh (Services) 4:16.22.0s (NR); 2. Sitaram (Services) 4:33.16.0s; 3. Jalan P.S. (Services) 4:35.43.0s. 3,000m steeplechase: 1. Arun D'Souza (Rlys) 9:0.38s; 2. Bhagwan Diwakar Giri (Rlys) 9:2.98s; 3. Omprakash (Mah) 9: 8.96s. 200m: 1. A. Arvind (Rlys) 21.28s; 2. Muthuswamy (Rlys) 21.53s; 3. B. Ramu (Services) 21.73s. Discus throw: 1. Amritpal Singh (Pun) 53.75m; 2. Sukhbir Singh (Police) 53.18m; 3. Virendra Singh (Services) 53.0s. High jump: 1. Harishankar Roy (Rlys) 2.10m; 2. Benedict Starle (Rlys) 2.10m; 3. Sunil Kumar (Services) 2.05m. 800m: 1. Gamanda Ram (Services) 1m 46.67s (NMR); 2. Josemon Mathew (Services) 1m 49.50s; 3. R. Bangariah (AP) 1m 51.08s. Pole vault: 1. V.V. Geesh Kumar (Police) 5.50m; 2. Gajanan Upadhyaya (Rlys) 4.90m; 3. Praveen Kumar (Rlys) 4.70m.

Women: 200m: 1. Babita Singh (Rlys) 24.01s; 2. Gowramma G.D. (Rlys) 24.58s; 3. K. Mrudhula (AP) 25.0s. 3,000m steeplechase: 1. L. Manjula (Rlys) 11m 10.12s; 2. L. Preeti Rao (Rlys) 11m 44.90s; 3. G. Laxmi (Rlys) 11m 58.56s; Heptathlon: 1. Sinimol M.P. (Rlys) 4310 pts.; 2. Rose Mary Anthony (Kerala) 4202 pts.; 3. Karpuramala (Rlys) 4127 pts.; 800 m: 1. Pinki Paramanik (Rlsy) 2:04.30s; 2. S. Shanthi (Tamil Nadu) 2:06.08s; 3. Rupinder Kaur (Rlys) 2:08.14s;

400m hurdles: 1. Pooja Jhakar (Delhi) 58.61s; 2. Babita Singh (Rlys) 58.81s; 3. Vijay Laxmi (Rlys) 1:00.55s.

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