Kavita Raut completed a grand distance double in the athletics competition of the 34th Jharkhand National Games at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Monday.
The 25-year-old from Maharashtra could not have asked for more on the concluding day of the competition as she defeated the favourite and Statemate Preeja Sreedharan comfortably to bag the women's 5000 metres gold in a new Games record of 15.54.26 seconds, erasing the mark set by Punjab's Sunita Rani in the 1999 Manipur Games.
On the first day too, Kavita had beaten Preeja to the 10,000m gold in a new meet record time.
Kerala's Soji Mathew revealed his sense of humour after winning the men's 5000m gold by a length in a meet record time of 14:11.99s. “I have shown my performance. Now it's your turn,” he said to a group of Kerala journalists.”
It was a confident and authoritative run by the 29-year-old who is employed with Western Railway (Mumbai).
In fact, there was nobody in sight when Soji turned around to see if there was anyone keeping pace with him.
The first four runners in the men's 5000m bettered the meet mark. The men's 200m race produced a surprise winner in Nitin Kumar (Services) in a time of 21.74s. Nitin pipped Manikandaraj in a photo finish (Nitin's 21.737 to Manikandaraj's 21.740).
In fact, Abdul Najeeb Mohammed, who finished a disappointing third in a time of 21.75, had created a meet record (21.16s) in the semifinals.
Manju wins
Manju Bala of Rajasthan triumphed in women's hammer throw (56.73m). National record holder Hardeep Kaur could finish only fourth.
Like Kavita, Mayookha Johny of Kerala completed a double, winning the long jump and triple jump titles. Overall, 12 Games records were set.
Kerala was the overall champion with nine gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals. Kerala also bagged the top spot in the women's section with six gold, seven silver and two bronze medals while Services took the honours in the men's category with a tally of 7-1-5, which put it as the overall runner-up as well.
The results:
Men: 200m: 1. Nitin Kumar (SSCB) 21.74s; 2. Manikandaraj (AP) 21.74; 3. Abdul Najeeb Mohammed (AP) 21.75.
5,000m: 1. Soji Mathew (Ker) 14:11.99s, NMR (OR: Sunil Kumar (Jhar), 14:17.47, 2007); 2. Rahul Kumar (Mah) 14:14.35; 3. Mohd. Yunus (SSCB) 14:15.26.
4x400m relay: 1. SSCB (R.K. George, Kunju Mohd., Premanand, S.K. Mortuza) 3:09:54s; 2. Punjab 3:09.82; 3. Kerala 3:10.02.
Women: 200m: 1. G. Mounika (AP) 24.05s; 2. H.M. Jyoti (AP) 24.27; 3. V. Santhini (Ker) 24.73. 5,000m: 1. Kavita Raut (Mah) 15:54.26, NMR (OR: Sunita Rani (Pun), 16:05.36, 1999); 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 15:54.98; 3. O.P. Jaisha (Pun) 16:31.47.
Hammer: 1. Manju Bala (Raj) 56.73s; 2. Anita Abraham (Ker) 55.57; 3. Gunjan Singh (U.P.) 54.97.
Triple jump: 1. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 13.31m; 2. M.A. Prajusha (Ker) 13.20; 3. Shradha Ghule (Mah) 13.11.
4x400m relay: 1. Kerala (R. Anu, Ambika Sreedharan, C. Arya, Sini Jose) 3:39.14s; 2. AP (3:43.9s); 3. Jharkhand (3:454.08).
