Arpinder Singh was unrecognisable to even his coach, Dutee Chand ran a three-legged race and Archana Suseendran had a false start. The three were among those the Athletics Federation of India was banking on to increase the size of its contingent for the World Championships at the final qualifying event here on Thursday.
The sixth leg of the Indian Grand Prix, though, was even more disappointing than last week. Except for the men’s javelin throw, most disciplines barely had enough participants to even qualify for competition. The women’s 200m had four — two did not start and Archana fouled, leaving Anjali Devi to run a solo race!
The women’s 100m had five, with two DNS. In 400m, Saritaben Gayakwad pulled up halfway through in a field of four. Javelin had only two.
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In triple jump, coach Antony Yaich was blunt enough to say he didn’t recognise Arpinder. “In testing through the weekend, he was fantastic. Yesterday and today, he was horrible. I have no idea what happened.
Arpinder’s best was a 16.35m, almost half a metre short of even his performance (16.83m) last week!
Murali Sreeshankar though stayed true to his recent form with a 7.79m jump but the surprise was Sahil Mahabali from Haryana, who jumped the same but had two fouls to push him to second spot.
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Focus on relay
In the process, the entire focus was on the men’s 4x400m relay side that had made a mockery the process last week. With Alex Anthony yet to recover from a pulled hamstring, K.S. Jeeven replaced him in the squad but was the weakest link in the quartet.
The team clocked 3:03.68 but stayed on course for the Worlds. However, what would concern the AFI would be the individual timings of the side with the riddle of relay squad composition nowhere near resolution when the AFI selection committee meets on September 9.
The results: Men: 100m: 1. Kush Kumar (11.48s), 2. Abhishek Chaudhary (11.67s), 3. Nikhil Rahangdale (12.19s); 200m: 1. Gajanan Mistry (21.77s), 2. Sarthak Bhambri (22.05s), 3. Nikhil Rahangdale (25.72s); 4x400m relay: 1. India-B (3:03.68), 2. AFI Team-A (3:10.55), 3. Sri Lanka (3:13.08); Shot put: 1. Inderjeet Singh (19.53m), 2. Jasdeep Dhillon (18.10m), 3. Devinder Singh (17.44m); Long jump: 1. M. Sreeshankar (7.79m), 2. Sahil Mahabali (7.79m), 3. Samit Singh (7.51m); Pole vault: 1. Prashant Kumar Kanhaiya (4.90m), 2. Dhirendra Kumar (4.60m), 3. Gourav (4.50m); Triple jump: 1. U. Karthik (16.69m), 2. Arpinder Singh (16.35m), 3. Mohd. Salahuddin (16.33m); Javelin: 1. Rajender (78.67m), 2. Davinder Singh Kang (78.37m), 3. Yashvir Singh (76.19m).
Women: 100m: 1. Dutee Chand (11.43s), 2. Jilna (11.77s), 3. Indi Prasad (12.56s); 200m: Anjali Devi (23.44s), 2. Archana Suseendran (FS); 400m: 1. Revathi (53.63s), 2. Aishwarya Mishra (54.72s), 3. Payal Vohra (57.51s); 1500m: 1. Lili Das (4:19.77), 2. W.K.L. Arachchi Nimali (4:25.86), 3. K.M. Deeksha (4:46.89); 3000m steeplechase: 1. Sudha Singh (10:00.66), 2. Chinta Yadav (11:11.67), 3. Preenu Yadav (11:32.63); Long jump: 1. Mareena George (6.01m), 2. Sowmiya Murugan (5.91m), Sonu Kumari (5.68m); Shot put: 1. Abha Khatua (16.01m), 2. Navjeet Dhillon (15.71m), 3. Tunlai Narzary (13.54m); Javelin: 1. Sharmila Kumari (50.40m), 2. K.M. Saloni (46.78m) .