Lalita Babbar beat the reigning Asian Games gold medallist Sudha Singh at the post as the duo ran a strong race to come under the meet mark in the women’s 3000 metres steeplechase in the 18th Federation Cup athletics championships at the NIS Complex here on Monday.
Lalita clocked nine minutes 52.34 seconds while erasing National record-holder Sudha’s meet record of 10:13.83 set last year. Sudha must have been quite pleased with her run, after she had tripped during the inter-State championship in Lucknow in June. Both comfortably came under the qualifying guideline of 10:05.60s.
There was a dramatic turnaround in men’s steeplechase as Ashish of Assam and Naveen of Haryana were disqualified after they won the first two places, as the former was judged to have been “pacing” the latter, according to the officials, who had repeatedly warned. Jai Veer of Haryana benefited to take the gold with a time of 8:53.36.
On the triple jump pit, M.A. Prajusha came up with a jump of 13.39 metres that helped her not only to win the gold but also ensure a favourable consideration for the Asian Games.
Prajusha, who had won the long jump earlier, had fouled four of her other jumps in the final, and thus was quite pleased to have got it right, despite being “very tired.” Mayookha Johny had to settle for bronze behind N.V. Sheena, even though both had 13.34.
In men’s high jump, Nikhil Chittarasu equalled Hari Shanker Roy’s meet mark of 2.21 metres. He had jumped 2.20 metres in Lucknow in June, and had already met the ‘qualifying guideline’ of 2.19 metres set for the Asian Games.
National record holder, V.S. Surekha set a new mark in women’s pole vault at 4.05 metres, as she improved Khyati Vakharia’s mark by five centimetres.
Annu Rani won women’s javelin with a throw of 58 metres that replaced Suman Devi’s meet mark of 56.11 metres. It was nothing much to cheer about for Annu who had set a National record 58.83 in June.
The high jump champion Sahana Kumari attempted the heptathlon and had a nasty fall on her face towards the finish in the 200 metres after tripping on the track. She finished the race, with a slow painful walk, which would ensure points for her to complete the event.
In the morning, K.T. Irfan, who set a National record at the London Olympics, clocked 1 hour 24 minutes and 27.60 seconds while beating Ganapathy of Tamil Nadu by a half minute. Irfan has a National record at 1:20:21 and the meet record at 1:22:14.00.
Irfan said that his focus was just to do a good walk, win the event, without worrying much about the time as he had qualified three months earlier for the Asian Games.
Leading walkers like Babubhai Panucha (1:27:57.30) and Gurmeet Singh (1:31:20.00) placed sixth and 11th respectively.
Snesarev fumesIt was interesting to see the distance running coach Nikolai Snesarev taunting a walk judge on the course as to why he was not catching athletes, who were running right under his nose.
He even shouted the jersey number of a walker to plead, “please do not run”.
The particular walker received three warnings, but the hassled official threatened the foreign coach who had nothing to do with walking that he would register a complaint against him!
Virender Poonia, who confirmed Krishna Poonia’s participation in women’s discus on the final day, was happy that his ward Baljinder Singh won the men’s discus.
The results:
Men: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Jai Veer 8:53.36s; 2. Manju 8:54.43; 3. Ramachandran 9:05.17. High jump: 1. Nikhil Chittarasu 2.21m (EMR, old 2.21); 2. Yoga Raj 2.19; 3. Jithin Thomas 2.16. Discus: 1. Baljinder Singh 56.01m; 2. Arjun Singh 54.62; 3. Dharmaraj Yadav 53.16. 20km walk: 1. K.T. Irfan 1:24:27.60s; 2. Ganapathy 1:24:57.60; 3. Baljinder Singh 1:26:22.70.
Women: 3000m steeplechase: 1. Lalita Babbar 9:52.34s (NMR, old 10:13.83); 2. Sudha Singh 9:53.54; 3. Priyanka Patel 10:54.25. Triple jump: 1. M.A. Prajusha 13.39m; 2. N.V. Sheena 13.34; 3. Mayookha Johny 13.34. Pole vault: 1. V.S. Surekha 4.05m (NMR, old 4.00); 2. Khyatia Vakharia 3.70; 3. K.C. Dija 3.50. Javelin: 1. Annu Rani 58.00m (NMR, old 56.11); 2. Suman Devi 54.72; 3. Rupinder Kaur 47.01.
