Renjith Maheswary managed to clear only three of his six allocated jumps but one of them was enough to get the triple jumper gold with a leap of 16.09 metres on the final day of the ONGC 54th National Open Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.
The veteran jumper had been doubtful for participation but despite a dodgy back, the meet-record holder won the showdown with a younger Arpinder Singh.
“I had missed a large part of the season because of my injuries. My back is not completely healed but this is the only meet in a year that Railways expects us to partcipate in, so I can’t let them down. I am happy with the gold but it is not something special,” Maheswary said after the event.
“There was hardly any practice for this event. Also, after the Asian Games, there has been a lot of travelling, which didn’t help. The national camp is likely to begin from next month and hopefully I will be well set for the coming year,” Arpinder said.
The marquee race of the event, the 4x400m relay for women, was the penultimate one and Railways managed to edge past ONGC for the title.
While Jaunau Murmu gave a blazing start for ONGC and M.R. Poovamma did her best in the anchor lap, Mandeep Kaur’s absence hurt the former. Sakshi, otherwise a 1500m runner, was drafted in but she let almost a 100m-lead slip away in the third lap as Priyanka Mondal overtook her. Tintu Luka did the rest for the winner.
Surya pips PreejaIn the women’s 10,000 metres, L. Surya edged past Preeja Sreedharan in the last 100 metres to take gold.
Preeja led all the way from start to finish but Surya lived up to her reputation of being a quick finisher with a burst of speed at the end.
Tintu was named the ‘best individual women athlete’ while long jumper Ankit Sharma was named the ‘best male athlete’.
The results:
Men: 200m: 1. Manikanda Arumugam (RSPB, 20.98s), 2. Dharambir (HAR, 21.06), 3. Manokandan Raj (RSPB, 21.61).
400m hurdles: 1. Durgesh Kumar Pal (SSCB, 50.61s), 2. Ramachandran (SSCB, 51.03), 3. Jithin Paul (RSPB, 51.30).
1500m: 1. Ajay Kumar Saroj (ONGC, 3:48.53), 2. Jinson Johnson (SSCB, 3:49.05), 3. Ghamanda Ram (ONGC, 3:49.10).
10000m: 1. Gopi T. (SSCB, 29:32.26), 2. Kheta Ram (SSCB, 29:32.75), 3. Suresh Kumar (ONGC, 29:32.96).
4x100m relay: 1. Railways (Sathyaseelan A, Arunjith, Manikandan Raj and Manikanda Arumugam; 40.77s), 2. Services (Sunil Kumar, Vidya Sagar, Yesu Raj and Jyothi Shankar; 40.79), 3. Punjab (Inderjit Singh, Amandeep Singh, Karandeep Singh and Meva Singh; 41.87).
4x400m relay: 1. Services (Kunhu Mohammed, Jibin Sebastian, Jithu Baby and Rajiv Arokia; 3:10.26), 2. Railways (Jithin Paul, Vishamber Kolekar, Neera Pawar and Bibin Mathew; 3:10.81), 3. Kerala (Manu Kuriakose Zach, Ajith C.M., Binu Jose and Sugina M; 3:11.78).
Hammer: 1. Niraj Kumar (SSCB, 68.86m), 2. Pargat Singh (RSPB, 64.46), 3. Kaushal Singh (SSCB, 62.36).
Triple jump: 1. Renjith Maheswary (RSPB, 16.09m), 2. U. Karthik (SSCB, 15.95), 3. Arpinder Singh (ONGC, 15.89).
Women:
200m: 1. Asha Roy (RSPB, 24.46s), 2. V. Santhini (LIC, 24.56), 3. Srabani Nanda (RSPB, 24.59).
400m hurdles: 1. Arpitha M. (KAR, 59.82s), 2. Jauna Murmu (ONGC, 1:00.25), 3. Monika Singh (UP, 1:03.47).
1500m: 1. O. P. Jaisha (RSPB, 4:17.80), 2. Sini Ajith Markose (ONGC, 4:21.89), 3. Sakshi (ONGC, 4:22.15).
4x100m relay: 1. Railways (Mandeep Kaur, Merlin K. Joseph, Anchu M. M. and Sharada N.; 46.73s), 2. Karnataka (Pragna Prakash, Praneetha Pradeep, Padmini M.G. and Arpitha M; 47.81).
4x400m relay: 1. Railways (Sonal Chawla, Sinsha K., Priyanka Mondal and Tintu Luka; 3:47.77), 2. ONGC (Jauna Murmu, Sini Ajith Markose, Sakshi and M.R. Poovamma; 3:49.93), 3. Kerala (Sugina M, Alga Winny James, Sindhu K. and Jessy Joseph; 3:56.40).
10000m: 1. L. Surya (RSPB, 33:56.05), 2. Preeja Sreedharan (RSPB, 34:03.19), 3. Swati Gadhawe (RSPB, 35:35.22).
Discus: 1. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (ONGC, 55.33m), 2. Praveen Kumari (RAJ, 49.90), 3. Sandeep Kumari (RSPB, 48.83).
Triple jump: 1. Sheena N.V. (KER, 12.99m), 2. Amitha Baby (RSPB, 12.87), 3. Bhairabi Roy (WB, 12.81).
Heptathlon: 1. Liksy Joseph (MP, 5444 points), 2. Purnima Hamram (RSPB, 5298), 3. Swana Barman (WB, 5073).
Overall champion: 1. RSPB (315 points), 2. SSCB (166), 3. ONGC (117).
Men's team champion: 1. SSCB (166 points), 2. RSPB (112.5).
Women's overall champion: 1. RSPB (202.5 points), 2. ONGC (57).
Best athletes (individual):Men: Ankit Sharma (LIC, long jump, 1109 points).
Women: Tintu Luka (RSPB, 800m, 1085 points).
