The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Abdul Najeeb and Sudha emerge the fastest

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Sport - Athletics

Abdul Najeeb and Sudha emerge the fastest

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: As the sprinters crossed the finish line, three men pumped up their hands in triumph. One of them even began speaking to the waiting media. For a few minutes after the 100m dash in the 69th all-India inter-university athletics championship here on Sunday evening, there was much confusion.

But when the verdict came, there was a new hero. Kakatiya University’s Mohammed Abdul Najeeb emerged as the fastest man pipping Annamalai’s N. Manikandaraja, the young man who was speaking to the media, by one thousandth of a second.

“I was confused after the finish, I didn’t know what had happened,” said the 21-year-old Abdul Najeeb, a second-year B.Com student of Kavita Memorial College, Khammam.

Abdul Najeeb is not a strong starter but he powered his way to the front after the 50m.

A little later, another university from Andhra Pradesh won the women’s 100m too.

Long wait

For Andhra University’s N. Sudha, the fastest woman, the title came after five years of waiting.

“This is my last year in the universities championship and a very happy one too. I’ve never won anything in my last four years,” said Sudha, a second year M.Com student of Pydah College in Visakhapatnam.

Sudha, unlike the men’s champion, was a clear winner, breaking away from the rest of the gang after the 60m.

There was some disappointment for the athletics buffs who were hoping to see a thriller in the women’s 400m which had two Olympians, M. R. Poovamma and Sini Jose, and the young Tintu Luka in the fray.

Tintu disqualified

Tintu was disqualified in heats this morning after two foul starts. “With the frequent change, we were not very happy with the schedule of events,” said her coach P. T. Usha. “And Tintu was not in a proper frame, everything upset her rhythm, that’s why those fouls probably came.”

But the organisers were not convinced. “We changed the schedule of the 800m and a few other events after receiving complaints from teams. Now, we hear this all over again,” said Tony Daniel, the convener of the Technical Committee.

The results:

Men: 100m: 1. Md Abdul Najeeb (Kakatiya, Warangal), 10.75s, 2. M. Manikandaraja (Annamalai) 10.75, 3. Jamaluddin (Mangalore) 10.75; 5,000m: 1. Deep Chandras (CSJM, Kanpur) 14:48.65s, 2. Devender (MD, Rohtak) 14:49.44, 3. Gopal Singh (HNB Gharwal, Srinagar) 14:50.4; Long jump: 1. Shamsher Partap Singh (GNDU, Amritsar) 7.61m, 2. Amalanathan (Madras) 7.44, 3. Raju Ommen (Kerala) 7.33.

Women: 100m: 1. N. Sudha (Andhra) 12.04s, 2. V. Santhini (Calicut) 12.22, 3. B. Bindhu (12.28); 5,000m: 1. L. Suriya (Bharathidasan, Trichy) 18:13.83s, 2. Neelam Kadam (Mumbai) 18:15.26; 3. Savita Dhanker (MD, Rohtak) 18:15.75. High jump: 1. N.K. Siji (Kannur) 1.69m, 2. Geethu Scaria (Calicut) 1.67 & Divya Priya (Anna, Chennai) 1.67; Hammer throw: 1. Gunjan Singh (CSJM, Kanpur) 50.84m, 2. Anitha Abraham (Mahatma Gandhi, Ktm) 50.24, 3. Reena (MD, Rohtak). 48.04.