Bharathiar University’s M.A. Siva Anbarasi stunned some of the best in the country to clinch the women’s triple jump gold on a day when two records fell in the 77th all-India inter-university athletics meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.
The triple jump field had Sheena and Shilpa Chacko, the top two senior National stars from Mangalore University. The former, who is preparing for the Asian Track and Field championship scheduled at Ranchi in June, started off in a glorious manner clearing 12.87m on her very first attempt. It was way behind her personal best of 13.58m but it still looked good enough for the gold.
Anbarasi, on the other hand, was struggling hard to get her rhythm right. After failing to impress on her first few attempts, the 22-year-old post graduate student from PSGR Krishnammal College (Coimbatore) came up with a stunning jump of 13.04m that sent the home crowd into raptures.
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“I did not expect to clear the 13m barrier. My personal best is only 12.75 (Open Nationals, Kolkata) and today’s jump has boosted my confidence. I can now set my eyes on international medals,” said Anbarasi, who trains under M.A. George in Thiruvananthapuram.
George was a happy man. “I always knew she could do it, but, to be frank, even I was taken by surprise when she cleared 13m. I did not do anything big on her. I just worked on her take-off technique, from ordinary to single-arm a couple of months ago and it has done a world of good for her,” he said.
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Kamalpreet, Sanjivini set new marks
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Kamalpreet Kaur of Punjabi University (Patiala) and Jadhav Sanjivini shattered the discus and 5000m marks in the women’s section.
The former flung the disc to 55.11m and, with it, erased the old mark of 53.28m set by Harwant Kaur in 2001, while the latter set a new time of 15:59.17s which was better than her own last year’s mark of 16:18.01s.
Sudhakar, Archana fastest
Later in the day, C.H. Sudhakar (Kakatiya University) and Archana (University of Madras), as expected, took home the 100m gold for men and women respectively.
The results:Men: 100m: 1. C.H. Sudhakar (Kakatiya) 10.64s, 2. Elakkiya Dasan (University of Madras), 3. R. Swaminathan (Vels, Chennai). 800m: 1. Bharath (Mangalore) 1:52.92s; 2. Amoj Jacob (Univ. of Delhi); 3. Mijo Chacko Kurian (Mangalore). 5000m: 1. Tadvikisan (Savitribai Phule, Pune) 14:37.47s; 2. Robin Singh (Mangalore); 3. Vasudev Nishad (DDU Gorakhpur); High jump: 1. Geo Jos (MG, Kottayam) 2.09m; 2. Vinith (SRM); 3. Jessy Sandesh (Jain, Bangalore). Shot put: 1. Navtejdeep Singh (Punjabi, Patiala) 17.35m; 2. Jaspal (Chaudhary Devi Lal, Sirsa); 3. Alfin (Mangalore).
Women: 100m: 1. Archana (University of Madras) 12.04s; 2. V. Revathi (Madurai Kamaraj); 3. K. Manju (MG University, Kottayam). 800m: 1. Priya (University of Madras) 2:13.31s; 2. Sayali Kishore (RTM, Nagpur); 3. Vijay Laxmi (Lucknow).
5000m: 1. Jadhav Sanjivini (Savitribai Phule) 15:59.17s (NMR); 2. Meenu (Mangalore); 3. Heena (Himachal Pradesh). Discus: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur (Punjabi University, Patiala) 55.11m (NMR); 2. Kirandeep Kaur (GNDU); 3. Jyoti Rawat (Punjabi Univ., Patiala) .