An unheralded Sreejithmon of Kerala upstaged big names Renjith Meheshwary and Arpinder Singh to claim the triple jump gold with a leap of 16.15m on the fourth and final day of the 57th National Open athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
Coached by M.A. George at Thiruvananthapuram, Sreejithmon started with 15.77m and made the winning jump on his third attempt. The reigning all-India inter-university champion and record holder is without a job and hopes that his effort in Chennai will help him fetch one.
After the third jump, one of his shoes got torn but he continued with the next three with the same shoe as he didn’t have a replacement. Watching on, Bedros Bedrosian, India’s jumps coach, said he will definitely include Sreejithmon in the National camp at Thiruvananthapuram.
The results: Men: 200m: Vidya Sagar (Ser) 21.46s, 2. Parveen (Har) 21.49, 3. K. Ashok (Ser) 21.53; 800m: Ajay Saroj (Rlys) 1:49.05, 2. Md. Afsal (Ser) 1:49.16, 3. Vishamber Kolekar (Rlys) 1:50.18; 10,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan (Ser) 29:16.21, 2. Vasudev Nishad (Rlys) 29:32.77, 3. Suresh Kumar (ONGC) 29:45.41; hammer throw: 1. Niraj Kumar (Ser) 65.42m, 2. Ashish Jakhar (Har) 64.00, 3. Sukhdev Singh (Rlys) 63.38m; triple jump: K. Sreejithmon (Ker) 16.15m, 2. Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 16.06, 2. Rakesh Babu (Ser) 16.06; 4x100m relay: 1. Services (Satnam Singh, Vinit Panwar, Vidya Sagar, Md. Sadath) 40.17, 2. TN (Surendhar, Elakkiyadasan, Sivakumar, P. Kumar) 40.94, 3. All India Police Sports Board (Saman Pradhan, Mewa Singh, Vipin Kumar, Punniya Suriyan) 41.08; 4x400m relay: 1. Haryana (Aman Auluck, Manjeet, Ravinder, Ravi Kumar) 3:10.55, 2. Andhra Pradesh (Jidian George, Eusup Ali, Angaraj Singh, Diwakar Davas) 3:11.74, 3. Uttar Pradesh (Harsh Kumar, Harsh Panwar, Sanjeev Sheokand, Sumit Kumar) 3:13.32.
Women: 200m: 1. Hima Das (Asm) 24.26, 2. S. Archana (TN) 24.33, 3. Anwesha Roy Pradhan (WB) 24.56; 800m: Lili Das (Rlys) 2:04.51, 2. Sipra Sarkar (WB) 2:05.85, 3. Komal Chaudhary (Rlys) 2:06.45; 20km walk: 1. Priyanka (ONGC) 1:40:43.00, 2. Ravina (Har) 1:43:39.00, 3. L. Deepmala Devi (Rlys) 1:43:50.00; 10,000m: L. Surya (Rlys) 32:42.62, 2. Parul Chaudhary (Rlys) 33:43.07, 3. Saigeeta Naik (AIPSB) 34:54.93; discus: Kamalpreet Kaur (Rlys) 54.25m, 2. Navjeet Kaur (Rlys) 53.20, 3. Baljit Kaur (AIPSB) 45.95; 4x100m relay: 1. Karnataka (Apsana Begaum, Prajna S Prakash, M.G. Padmini, H.M. Jyothi) 46.28s, 2. Railways (Sunanda Sarkar, Akila, S. Priyanka Kalagi, Himashree Roy) 46.48, 3. TN (A.P. Srija, Chandra Lekha, Kanimozhi, S. Archana) 46.66; 4x400m relay: 1. ONGC (Jauna Murmu, Rajni Nagar, Twinkle Chaudhary, Poovamma) 3:38.81, 2. Railways (Chavi Sharavath, K.P. Ammu, Sonal Chawla, M. Arpitha) 3:40.13, 3. Karnataka (Apsana Begaum, P.J. Sneha, A. Nithyashree, G.K. Vijayakumari) 3:42.67.
Best athletes: T. Santhosh Kumar, 400mH (TN, 1122 pts) & Chinta Yadav, 3000m steeplechase (Rlys, 1121). Men’s championship: 1. Services (182), 2. Rlys (100). Women’s: 1. Rlys (196), 2. Kar (55).
