The Hindu : Sport : Shankar beats Abraham in 400m hurdles

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Tuesday, Jun 17, 2008
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Sport - Sports : General

Shankar beats Abraham in 400m hurdles

K. P. Mohan

Athletics / Mayookha Johny wins triple jump gold

— Photo: M. Moorthy

GOLDEN EFFORT: P. Shankar, who won the 400m hurdles at the Velammal National inter-State athletics championship in Madurai on Monday.

MADURAI: P. Shankar edged National record holder Joseph Abraham in a keen 400m hurdles final on the second day of the Velammal 38th National inter-State athletics championships at the MGR Stadium here on Monday.

It was expected to be a close contest, notwithstanding Abraham’s rustiness and it turned out to be so. Coming into the home bend Shankar had the advantage, but the Kerala man made a determined effort on the last two hurdles before losing.

Abraham, coming back into competition after an eight-month lay-off, apparently strained his quadriceps around 25 metres from the finish as he made a desperate attempt to win. He had remained unbeaten at home through 2007 when he clocked two National records, 49.52 in Guwahati in June and 49.51 in the World championships in Osaka in August, the last one bringing him agonizingly close to the Olympic qualification mark of 49.50s.

After suffering a hamstring injury in Bhopal in September Abraham skipped the rest of the season, missed the early part of this year through a combination of injury and pre-occupation with his new job with the Railways, before coming back here. He will probably have to wait for the next season to do anything notable.

Shankar who had beaten Abraham in the Asian Grand Prix in Bangalore in 2006, while posting a national record (50.39) timed 50.89. Abraham had 50.97 and T. Balamurugan of Tamil Nadu, whom coach Rajinder Singh rates highly, came in 51.95.

Mayookha Johny expectedly took the women’s triple jump gold with a mark of 13.23 metres, 11 centimetres shy of her best recorded at the Bhopal Federation Cup last February. She had two other jumps over 13 metres.

Anju withdraws

Anju George, though entered initially in triple jump also, withdrew eventually. Incidentally, Anju holds the meet record at 13.54. She also holds the national record at 13.67.

Gajanan Upadhyay, after making sure of the gold in pole vault at 4.80 metres, went for the national record at 5.11 but failed.

P. J. Vinod, on antibiotics because of an infection, could manage only 3774 points at the half-way stage in decathlon. That was about 400 points short of his first-day best and he should now settle for a total far below the 7700 points required to make the Beijing cut. He has a best of 7441.

Dull contests

On a day when events were stretched out to apparently accommodate live coverage requirements, the schedule brought out yawns much of the time. Dull contests only aggravated the misery of the small gathering.

The results:

Men: 400m hurdles: 1. P. Shankar (AP) 50.89, 2. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 50.97, 3. T. Balamurugan TN) 51.95; Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (Jharkhand) 4.80, 2. Sunder Singh (Pun) 4.70, 3. Bimin K. P. (Ker) 4.60; Hammer: 1. Joginder (UP) 58.54, 2. Madhu Kumar (Har) 57.92, 3. Yogesh (Jharkhand) 57.37.

Women: 400m hurdles: 1. Harpreet Kaur (Jharkhand) 1:00.31, 2. Pooja Jakhar (Del) 1:00.44, 3. Sutapa Das (Ben) 1:02.60; Triple jump: 1. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 13.23, 2. Prajusha M. A. 12.94, 3. Alka Chikli (Ker) 12.09; 20000m walk: 1. Deepmala Devi (Jharkhand) 1:47:55.57, 2. Y. Bala Devi (Jharkhand) 1:51:13.58, 3. Supriya Adak (Mah) 1:53:15.99; Javelin: 1. S. Saraswathi (TN) 46.34, 2. Suman Devi (UP) 44.43, 3. Mukesh Kumar Har) 42.45.