The Hindu : Sport : Renjith, Abraham break through barriers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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Sport

Renjith, Abraham break through barriers

K. P. Mohan

ATHLETICS / M.S. Gill’s 26-year-old record falls

GOOD SHOW: Chitra K. Soman once again excelled in the 400 metre category and beat the Asian Games champion for a gold medal.

GUWHATI: Triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and intermediate hurdler Joseph Abraham broke through barriers, hitherto unconquered by Indians, as the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix circuit went through a chaotic evening’s 22-event programme at th e Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday.

In the process of posting the first 17-metre jump by an Indian, Renjith bettered the oldest National record, that of 16.79m by Mohinder Singh Gill in Freseno, U.S., on May 9, 1971.

Moment to cherish

It was a moment Renjith had been waiting for, as he put it. The 22-year-old Kottayam youngster who is a product of the Sports Authority of India’s ‘Centre of Excellence’ scheme, had been knocking at the doors of stardom the past two seasons with his phenomenal improvement.

Sixteen-metre-plus had become so routine for Renjith that a 16.72 that put him within the qualification bracket for the Osaka World championships during the Federation Cup in Kolkata last month had gone almost unnoticed.

“Now I have the World championships qualification as well as the Beijing Olympics qualifying mark (16.80),” said an elated Renjith at the fag-end of a day’s programme that was turned topsy-turvy by a one-hour delay at the start cause d by the cultural programme.

Renjith has now scored back-to-back victories over Asian Games champion Li Yanxi of China, who incidentally finished third. Once he touched 16.89m in the third round there was no one to challenge the Kerala youngster. His 17.04m effort came in the fou rth round.

End of a long wait

Abraham also succeeded in achieving what he had been aiming for long, a sub-50-second timing for the 400-metre hurdles. The Kerala hurdler cracked his own National record while breaking through the barrier.

Abraham came second only to Chinese Meng Yan who was winning for the second time on the circuit, but the 25-year-old Indian clocked a fabulous 49.52s to take the silver, bettering his mark of 50.04s clocked in the Federation Cup in Kolkata in May. In the process, the Kerala man also beat another formidable opponent, Yevgeniy Meleshenko of Kazakhstan.

Chitra Soman’s victory in the women’s 400 metres over Asian Games champion Olga Teresshkova of Kazakhstan, Anju George’s below-par win in long jump, with just 6.28m and gold medals for Sinimole Paulose and Surender Singh, paled in fr ont of the record-breaking feats of Renjith and Abraham.

The women’s 4x400m relay team of Iylene Samantha, Mandeep Kaur and Chitra Soman clocked a poor 3:36.33s while coming second behind China.

The results: Men: 100m: 1. Wachara Sondee (Tha) 10.34; 2. Wen Yongyi (Chn) 10.36; 3. Sittichai Suwonprateep (Tha) 10.45; 400m: 1. Wang Liangyu (Chn) 46.16; 2. Prasanna Amarasekara (Sri) 46.79; 3. K.M. Binu (Ind) 47.0 3; 3000m: 1. Surender Singh (Ind) 7:57.87; 2. Sunil Kumar (Ind) 8:15.20; 3. Chaminda Wijekoon (Sri) 8:30.59; 400m hurdles: 1. Meng Yan (Chn) 49.50; 2. Joseph Abraham (Ind) 49.52 (NR, previous 50.04 ); 3. Yevgeniy Meleshenko (Kaz) 50.58.

High jump: 1. Sergey Zasimovich (Kaz) 2.18; 2. Kim Young-Min (Kor) 2.14; 3. Hari Sankar Roy (Ind) 2.14; Triple jump: 1. Renjith Maheswary (Ind) 17.04 (NR, previous 16.79); 2. Roman Valiyev (Kaz) 16 .76; 3. Li Yanxi (Chn) 16.70; Shot put: 1. Ahmed Gholum (Kuw) 18.60; 2. Polyemg Chatchawai (Tha) 17.95; 3. Saurabh Vij (Ind) 17.65; Discus: 1. Abbas Samimi (Iri) 60.91; 2.Vikas Gowda (Ind) 58.86; 3. Wu Tao (Chn) 57.6 4; 4x400m relay: 1. Sri Lanka 3:07.82; 2. Malaysia 3:10.61; 3. Thailand 3:10.63.

Women: 100m: 1. Guzel Khubbieva (Uzb) 11.24; 2. Susanthika Jayasinghe (Sri) 11.25; 3. Vu Thi Huong (Vie) 11.47; 400m: 1. Chitra K. Soman (Ind) 53.01; 2. Marina Maslyonko (Kaz) 53.68; 3. Olga Tereshkova (Kaz) 53.81; < em style="b">1500m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (Ind) 4:15.53; 2. Sushma (Ind) 4:20.07; 3. Svetlana Lukasheva (Kaz) 4:20.93;100m hurdles: 1. Anastasya Vinogradova (Kaz) 13.05; 2. Erawati Dedeh (Ina) 13.71; 3. Sheena Atilano (Phi) 13.92.

High jump: 1. Anna Ustinova (Kaz) 1.91; 2. Bui Thi Nhung (Vie) 1.88; 3. Nadezdah Dusanova (Uzb) 1.88; Long jump: 1. Anju Bobby George (Ind) 6.28; 2. Susmita Singha Roy (Ind) 5.82; 3. Priya Devi (Ind) 5 .79; Triple jump: 1. Xie Limei (Chn) 14.16; 2. Li Qian (Chn) 13.88; 3. Rakhima Sardi (Kgz) 13.53; Shot put: 1. Li Ling (Chn) 18.78; 2. Lee Mi-Young (Kor) 16.62; 3. Lin Chiya-Ying (Tpe) 16.58; 4x100m rel ay: 1. Thailand 44.43; 2. China 44.53; 3. India 47.33; 4x100m relay: 1. Thailand 39.85; 2. India 40.89; 3. Singapore 40.90; 4x400m relay: 1. China 3:32.14; 2. India 3:36.33; 3. Kazakhstan 3:43.86.

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