18th Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships Siddhanth equaled his national mark on day of close contests Patiala – 19 August 2014 The final day of the 18th Federation Cup national athletics championships had 16 finals, some of them witnessed thrilling close contests, as the curtain rung down in the four day “Asian Games Trials” at Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports tracks on Tuesday evening. For high hurdler Siddhanth Thingalaya the NIS track seems to be a favourite one as it was on the same venue he had set his first-ever national record in 13.81 secs, four years ago. Thereafter he improved it three times and dipped under that time at least 10 times! Siddhanth clocked 13.93 secs against a strong head-wind during the recent Commonwealth Games at Glasgow when finished third in his heats but fails to qualify for the final. A perfect start helped the Maharashtrian, running under ONGC banner, equal his national mark of 13.65 secs which he earlier clocked when finished second in the Belgian national championships at Brussels in 2012. Premkumar, representing Telangana, posted 13.96 secs for the silver Tamil Nadu’s Surendhar timed 14.24s in third place. As in men section the line-up for women’s 100m hurdles also seen a galaxy of strong athletes fight for the top spot. Tamil Nadu’s junior talent Deepika surged past ahead of her experienced compatriots right from the start. Having cleared the last hurdle together with K.V. Sajitha and M.M. Anchu, Deepika lost her balance in the last few metres and had a nose-diving right across the finish-line. The photo-finish revealed Anchu taking the gold in 13.80 with Deepika settled in silver place just one hundredth of a second behind. Kerala’s Sajitha went home with a bronze medal in 13.86 secs. In yet another close combat, Kerala quarter-miler Kunhu Mohammed pips Tamil Nadu star Arokia Rajiv at the post 46.40 to 46.41 secs to win the men’s 400m title. As expected M.R. Poovamma pockets the gold in women’s race timing 52.42 secs. With three other women finishing under 54 seconds the Indian athletes showed their readiness ready to repeat another golden act in Asian Games at Incheon. Two strong 200m finals in the evening had TN boy Manikanda Arumuguam (21.21s) and Bengal girl Asha Roy (23.89s) clinched the top spots in men and women sections respectively. Fresh from his bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games, Arpinder Singh overcame initial hiccups to win the triple jump in 16.70m. National record-holder Renjith Maheswary (16.43m) and A.V. Rakesh Babu (16.15m) settled with the minor places. Rajasthan’s Delhi CWG gold medalist Krishna Poonia (32) ascertained her position right from the first round in women’s discus throw to crown it in 56.84m from the world junior bronze medalist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, he hurled the disc to 53.26. Another experienced athlete, 31-year-old O.P. Jaisha, representing hosts Punjab state went on to clock a personal best 4:09.14 in women’s 1500m. With Commonwealth and Asian bronze medals already in her kitty, Jaisha revealed the distance runners have a long career than track-stars. Incidentally her previous best of 4:11.83 came eight years ago! Kerala’s Jinson Johnson had won the men’s title from a strong field in a nondescript 3:52.60. In the hammer throw, UP lad Chandrodaya Narayan Singh improved his meet mark to 67.84m to win from arch-rival Kamalpreet Singh (66.78m). Earlier in the morning, reigning Asian Games champion Preeja Sreedharn took the women’s 10k title in 34:27.94 while former Asian junior double gold medalist Rahul Kumar Pal snatched the men’s title in 30:04.77 just ahead of Tamil Nadu’s G. Lakshmanan, who timed a close 30:05.20 in second spot. Tamil Nadu state took the overall (125 points) and men’s (82) championships whereas Kerala were champions in women’s section with 57 points, as well as runners-up overall (121). The ONGC team adjudged runners-up in both the sections with 65.5 (men) and 55 (women) respectively. Hurdler Siddhanth Thingalaya and star 400m runner M.R. Poovamma (both representing ONGC) have been declared as best athletes in their respective divisions.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 10:25:24 +0000
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