Sensational record-breaking show by Anju

By A. Vinod

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 4. After all the disappointment in Nagercoil, there was finally something to cheer about at the second leg of the National domestic circuit meet at the University stadium here on Monday. And what lit up many faces today was none other than the National record-breaking effort in the women's long jump by Anju B. George (nee Markose), whose comeback to competitive athletics after a nine-month lay-off, was laced with a terrific jump of 6.74m.

Anju's sensational performance apart, the day also marked the first defeat for quartermiler K. M. Beenamol (at the hands of Jincy Philip) in two years, while there were quite a repeat winners in Kavita Pandya, Neelam Jaswant Singh, P. S. Primesh, Navpreet Singh, Satvir Singh and Fazal Ansari and a good win for young Sandeep Sarkaria of Delhi in the men's 100m.

But then, if all these went almost unnoticed, none could be faulted for that. Indeed, all eyes were on the pleasant- faced Anju who even as late on Sunday evening was left with no firm word on whether her event would be conducted this afternoon. With there being no entries apart from hers, Anju's foray back into competition was helped by two young Kerala girls - Anisha K. Vijayan and Smitha Francis - who sportingly had agreed to compete alongside the leading lady only with hours left for the start of the event.

Anju, in fact, took full advantage of the prevailing circumstances undeterred by the poor conditions of the approach runway. And she was bang on target in her first attempt itself, utilising the gentle slope leading to the pit (placed at a 14 degree inclination, well within the accepted norm of 16 degrees), gaining in speed towards the end and enjoying a perfect take-off. She might not have gained in height much but even as Anju kicked sand on her descend, it was very much evident that she had covered a notable distance. Proof of this did not take much time to come along and as the measurer finally announced the distance, Anju was greeted with a good applause.

The 6.74m effort, just one cm short of the A qualifying grade for the World championship in Edmonton but well above the 6.65m B qualifying mark for the same meet, took some time to sink in before one realised that Anju had gone above her previous mark of 6.59m (set in Bhopal in January last year) by a good 15 cms. Anju, in her second trial, cleared that mark once again with a 6.63m this time around though she had taken off a few yards behind the board and with a slightly awkward action. Complaining of a sprain on her injured right ankle thereafter, Anju passed her next two efforts fearing aggravation of injury. But then, she had made the day memorable with her two jumps and was herself a picture of joy when her husband-coach, Robert Bobby George, made it near to the pit to congratulate her.

Jincy Philip, in more ways than one, was to the poor victim of Anju's stupendous effort. The Kerala-born CRPF Inspector ran a well judged race and also had her share of joy as she outwitted the fancied Beenamol for the first time in two years, with a final kick in the last 40m. Beenamol, looking jaded, had led the pack into the home stretch but once Jincy came in charging, she was left with absolutely little of stamina to withstand the challenge on the hard track.

In other events, Neelam's second win in the discus throw came after she was engaged in a keen contest with Sugan Yadav, while Kavita Pandya was once again a runaway winner in the 100m.

The same was also true in the case of Sandeep Sarkaria in the men's short sprint even as Nagercoil winner, C. Thirugnanadurai failed to come within the medal bracket today. However, there was no stopping Navpreet Singh and Fazal Ansari in the shot put and javelin throw and both of them were winners of their respective event with a fair amount of ease.

lThe results:

Men:

100m: 1. Sandeep Sarkaria (Del) 10.69s, 2. Clifford Joshua (Kar) 10.76s, 3. Anand Menezes (Rly) 10.84s.

400m: 1. Satvir Singh (SSCB) 47.85s, 2. Lijo David Thottan (Rly) 48.32s, 3. Jata Shankar (Pol) 48.93s.

800m: 1. P. S. Primesh (Ker) 1:54.83, 2. K. M. Binu (Rly) 1:55.51, 3. K. A. Jayakumar (Pol) 1:55.99.

1500m: 1. Arun D'Souza (Kar) 4:00.50, 2. Joseph Baxla (Pol) 4:00.55, 3. Rajesh Kumar (SSCB) 4:07.36.

Long jump: 1. Satish Kumar (Har) 7.42m, 2. Robin M. Varghese (Ker) 7.31m, 3. Anil Kumar (Ker) 7.13m.

Shot put: 1. Navpreet Singh (Pol) 18.27m, 2. Kuldip Mann (Pol) 17.41m, 3. Jaiveer Singh (SSCB) 17.37m.

Hammer: 1. Ishtiaque Ahmed (UP) 63.38m, 2. Pramod Tiwari (UP) 63.30m, 3. Nirbhay Singh (SSCB) 59.10m.

Javelin: 1. Fazal Ansari (SSCB) 74.68m, 2. B. S. Dubey (LIC) 73.40m, 3. Ranjit Moria (Pol) 72.36m.

Women:

100m: 1. Kavita Pandya (Rly) 11.84s, 2. V. Pandeswari (Rly) 11.97s, 3. P. V. Sindhu (KSEB) 12.64s.

400m: 1. Jincy Philip (Pol) 54.04s, 2. K. M. Beenamol (Rly) 54.27s, 3. R. Sukumari (Ker) 56.32s.

1500m: 1. Madhuri A. Singh (Ben) 4:34.95, 2. Harjit Kaur (Pun) 4:35.26, 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 4:45.27.

Long jump: 1. Anju B. George (nee Markose) (TN) 6.74m - New National record; OR - 6.59m, Anju K. Markose); 2. Anisha K. Vijayan (Ker) 5.52m, 3. Smitha Francis (Ker) 5.31m.

Discus: 1. Neelam J. Singh (Rly) 56.40m, 2. Sugan Yadav (Rly) 56.22m, 3. Seema Antil (Pol) 55.70m.

Federation Cup advanced

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. The Federation Cup athletic meet for seniors has been advanced by five days, and will now be held in Bangalore from June 23 to 25.

The change was necessitated in view of various international athletic competitions.

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