The Hindu : Sport : Anju, Sinimole live up to stature

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 08, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Anju, Sinimole live up to stature

K. P. Mohan

A dozen gold for India on opening day

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

ENCOURAGING START: Anju George’s winning effort in the long jump event stood out on a day of ordinary performances at the South Asian athletics championship on Friday.

KOCHI: Anju George’s encouraging start to her outdoor campaign in this Olympic year and Sinimole Paulose’s spirited effort against the clock in the 800 metres stood out among a clutch of ordinary performances on the opening day of the South Asian athletics championships at the Maharaja’s Stadium here on Friday.

Performing before her home crowd for the first time in seven years, Anju had quite a vociferous gallery to back her up for every jump this hot afternoon. And she did not disappoint her fans who turned up in large numbers.

Opening with a 6.45, Anju touched 6.50 on her second jump, but that remained her best. Considering the fact that this was her outdoor season start, after an indoor best of only 6.38m, this was quite satisfying for the star long jumper. If one looked at her 2007 start of 6.28m at Guwahati this was indeed a fine beginning for Anju. Yet, her slump in the second half of the competition when she jumped 6.31, 6.39 and 6.42 should be bothering her coach Bobby George.

No contest

There never was any contest in women’s long jump, as was the case in a majority of the 17 finals that were gone through. India had a dozen gold medals at the end of the day, nothing surprising considering the level of the opposition.

Sinimole had to aim for 2:01.30 in the 800m to make the Olympics qualification mark and she ran bravely, with only a feeble challenge coming from team-mate Sushma Devi in an ordinary field. An unintended pace-setting by a Sri Lankan did help but an opening lap of 61-second-plus was not really the kind of pace that Sinimole could have been looking for. The end result of 2:03.16 was marginally better than her Fed Cup feat at Bhopal.

Winning in front of family members and home fans gave a special feeling to Sinimole just as it turned out to be for Chatholi Hamza who had a ‘kick’ to match that of Ravinder Bharadwaj on the straight in the men’s 1,500m. Twice during the past fortnight the Delhi man had beaten Hamza, but this time the Kerala runner was ready.

Mandeep beats Chitra

Mandeep Kaur equalled her best for the women’s 400m, 53.34, as she beat favourite Chitra Soman in the best contest of the day. Chitra’s characteristic pull on the straight was missing as Mandeep won quite comfortably matching her timing at the beginning of last season at Patiala. Chitra, who complained of a slight indisposition, clocked 53.69 while Satti Geetha did not finish the race.

The results: Men: 100m: Nagaraj (Ind) 10.62, Mohammad Imran (Pak) 10.68, 3. R.D.U. Sanjeeva Surendra (Sri) 10.71; 400m: 1 Prasanna Amarasekara (Sri) 46.47, 2. Rohitha Pushpakumara (Sri) 46.76, 3. Virender Kumar Pankaj (Ind) 47.70; 1,500m: 1. Chatholi Hamza (Ind) 3:44.67, 2. Ravinder Bharadwaj (Ind) 3:44.84, 3. Pritam Bind (Ind) 3:45.46.

5,000m: 1. Surendra Singh (Ind) 14:10.77 (NMR, previous 14:30.26), 2. Sandeep Batham (Ind) 14:35.06, 3. K.G.R. Samara Kumara (Sri) 14:46.75.

110m hurdles: 1. Krishna Mohan (Ind) 14.28, 2. Muhammad Sajjad (Pak) 14.39, 3. P. Muthuswami (Ind) 14.41; Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (Ind) 4.70, 2. Adnan Anjum (Pak) 4.60, 3. Bimin K.P. (Ind) 4.60; Triple jump: 1. Zafar Iqbal (Pak) 16.42, 2. Amarjeet Singh (Ind)16.39, 3. Bibu Mathew (Ind) 16.12. Shot put: 1. Satyendra Kumar Singh (Ind) 17.71 (NMR, previous 17.40), 2. Ashraf Ali (Pak) 17.22, 3. Om Prakash (Ind) 17.22; Hammer: 1. Ghulam Shabbir (Pak) 59.16, 2. Madhu Kumar (Ind) 56.26, 3. Jitender Singh (Ind) 55.61.

Women: 100m: 1. Pramila Priyadarshini (Sri) 11.74 (NMR, previous 11.88), 2. Jani Chathuragini de Silva (Sri) 11.87, 3. H.M. Jyothi (Ind) 12.01; 400m: 1. Mandeep Kaur (Ind) 53.34, 2. Chitra Soman (Ind) 53.69, 2. Chandrika Subhashina (Sri) 54.74.

800m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (Ind) 2:03.16, 2. Sushma Devi (Ind) 2:05.37, 3. Bindu S.R. (Ind) 2:09.56; 5,000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Ind) 16:08.09 (NMR, previous 17:04.02), 2. Kavita Raut (Ind) 16:31.22, 3. D.A. Inoka (Sri) 17:33.87.

100m hurdles: 1. Anuradha Biswal (Ind) 14.10, 2. Poonam Bojanna (Ind) 14.51, 3. B.G.L. Madhuwanthi (Sri) 14.67; Long jump: 1. Anju George (Ind) 6.50 (NMR, previous 6.26), 2. N.C.D. Priyadarshini (Sri) 6.06, 3. J.J. Shobha (Ind) 6.04. Discus: 1. Seema Antil (Ind) 57.94 (NMR, previous 53.28), 2. Harwant Kaur (Ind) 57.21, 3. Saroj Sihag (Ind) 47.84; Javelin: 1. B.L. Nadeeka Lakmali (Sri) 51.70, 2. Suman Devi (Ind) 43.09, 3. Gurpreet Kaur (Ind) 42.81.