R. Ramachandran of Tamil Nadu beat the better-rated Pritam Bind and Elam Singh while winning the men's 3000m steeplechase title in the Federation Cup athletics meet at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Monday.
Ramachandran clocked 8:44.33 and was followed by internationals Bind and Elam, the last-named a fourth-place finisher in the Asian championships in Guangzhou, China last year.
Maharashtra's Sandeep Parmar clocked his personal best of 14.34 to clinch the 110m hurdles. His previous best was 14.46 at Kochi last year.
International Sudha Singh, silver winner at the last Asian meet, claimed the women's steeplechase gold, clocking 10:15.91, well outside her National mark of 10:10.77. Another India star, Kiran Tiwari took the silver.
Karnataka's Kavya Muthanna tied with two others for the high jump gold but prevailed on the countback. The others who also reached 1.70m were Mallika Mondal and K. C. Chandana. The top woman high jumper, Sahana Kumari was absent.
In a meet which has seen thin fields and the regular absence of top stars, Gurmit Singh won the men's 20,000 metres walk in the absence of National record holder Babubhai Panucha.
The results:
Men: 3000m steeplechase: 1. R. Ramachandran (TN) 8:44.33, 2. Pritam Bind (ONGC) 8:45.44, 3. Elam Singh (Uttarakhand) 8:45.84; 110m hurdles: 1. Sandeep Parmar (Mah) 14.34, 2. Thingalaya Sidhant (Mah) 14.41, 3. Amandeep Singh (Pun) 14.61; Discus: 1. Simranjit Singh (BSF) 52.97, 2. Vikas Poonia (AFI) 51.83, 3. Amrit Pal Singh (Jkd) 50.23; 4x100m relay: 1. Army ‘A' 41.71, 2. Punjab ‘A' 42.17, 3. Andhra Pradesh ‘A' 42.65; 20,000m walk: 1. Gurmit Singh (Jkd) 1:31:18.46, 2. Gurpreet Singh (Army) 1:33:47.10, 3. Ashok Kumar Patel (Chhattisgarh) 1:34:25.27.
Women: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Sudha Singh (UP) 10:15.91, 2. Kiran Tiwari (MP) 10:22.93, 3. Priyanka Singh (UP) 10:23.04; 100m hurdles: 1. Anuradha Biswal (Ori) 14.28, 2.Anchu M. Mamchan (Jkd) 14.35, 3. Tripti Das 16.83; High jump: 1. Kavya Muthanna (Kar) 1.70, 2. Mallika Mondal (Ben) 1.70, 3. K. C. Chandana (Kar) 1.70; 4x100m relay: 1. Andhra Pradesh 47.33, 2. Orissa ‘A' 47.75, 3. Bengal 48.70.
