After a heady Saturday, it was a sedate Sunday at the Federation Cup athletics meet. If as many as 11 athletes had come under the qualifying marks for the Asian meet on Saturday, not to mention the Olympic qualification of Inderjeet Singh, just two could make it on a sultry day at the Mangala Stadium. And, it was in one event, the men’s 3000m steeplechase, which was also the last programme of the day.
Jaiveer Singh clocked 8:48.56 against Naveen Kumar’s 8:49.38 in a tight finish. Neither man reached anywhere near his personal best. “My aim was just to qualify for the Wuhan Asian championship,” said Jaiveer. “Given the weather conditions, I was not too worried about the time.”
Naveen, the bronze medallist from the Incheon Asian Games, said he always enjoyed the rivalry with Jaiveer. “He pushes me hard every time,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that I lost out; what matters is that I have met the qualification standard.”
That qualification standard proved elusive for all the other athletes that competed on Sunday. If there were expectations in the high jump pit, especially from Sreenith Mohan, whose personal best of 2.20m is just 0.01m short of the qualifying mark, those were belied. The Kerala lad could only go as high as 2.09m and finished fourth. The gold was won by S. Harshith of host Karnataka with a jump of 2.13m.
Mayookha Johny would have been a strong candidate for qualification from the women’s triple jump, but the National record holder chose to give it a miss after booking her ticket to Wuhan for the long jump on the opening day.
“I have not completely recovered from my ligament injury, and might almost certainly not take part in the triple jump,” she had indicated then.
In her absence, another Kerala girl, N.V. Sheena clinched the gold with an effort of 12.92m, which was quite some distance away from Wuhan (13.57m).
The day also saw Preeti Lamba clinching her second medal of the meet, when she struck gold in the 3000m steeplechase with a not so impressive 10:48.86. The final day on Monday should produce more excitement.
The results:
Men: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Jaiveer Singh (Army) 8:48.56, 2. Naveen Kumar (Army) 8:49.38, 3. Sachin Bajirao Patil (Mah) 8:58.13; High jump: 1. S. Harshith (Kar) 2.13m, 2. Suprith Raj (Kar) 2.09 & C. Srineesh (Army) 2.09, Pole vault: 1. J. Preeth (TN) 4.90m, 2. P. Balakrishna (Kar) 4.80, 3. Krishna Prasath (Tata) 4.80; Hammer: Niraj Kumar (Navy) 64.53m, 2. N. Shankar (TN) 56.83, 3. Abhishek Yadav (UK) 49.81; 20km walk: 1. Maniram Patel (Guj) 1:29.51, 2. Kuldip (Tata) 1:31.04, 3. Ankit Kumar (Navy) 1:31.13.
Women: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Preeti Lamba (Har) 10:48.86, 2. Nandini Gupta (UP) 10:58.76, 3. S. Padmavathy (TN) 11:30.50; Triple jump: 1. N.V. Sheena (Ker) 12.92m, 2. Joyline M. Lobo (Kar) 12.62, 3. Shilpa Chacko (Ker) 12.45; Hammer: 1. Ritu Dhiman (UP) 58.30m, 2. Sarabjeet Kaur (Pun) 55.10, 3. Sarita Singh (Odi) 54.97m.