Railways retained the overall title with a rich haul of medals (76) while Services emerged runners-up with 16 medals as four new meet records were created on the concluding day of the 47th National Open athletics championship at the JRD Tata sports complex here on Friday.
Babu Bhai of Services, who created a national record in 20,000 m walk, was named the best male athlete while Sinimole Paulose of Tata Athletics Academy, who represented Steel Plant Sports Board walked away with the best woman athlete for her gold medal effort in the 1500M.
Railway athletes maintained their winning streak on the final day also as long-distance runner Preeja Sreedharan set a new meet record in 5000M, clocking 15:45:96 to eclipsing Sunita Rani’s record (16:00:98) established in Bhopal in 1999.
This was the second gold for the Kerala girl, who also triumphed in the 10,000M on the opening day of the meet. Railway girls OP Jaisha and Kavita Raut bagged silver and bronze respectively, clocking 16:01:15 and 16:09:49.
In men’s triple jump, Railways’ Amarjeet Singh created a new meet record with a leap of 16.53 metres. The 24-year-old from Punjab bettered the meet record of 16.39 metres in the name of Renjith Maheshwary. Renjith was second with 16.14M while Bibu Mathew of Services took bronze with 16.12M.
Results: Men: 200M: Arunjith (Railways, 20.92S, NMR. Old: 21.06, Anand Menezes, 2002) 1; P Muthu Swami (Railways) 2; BG Nagraj (Railways) 3. 800M: Sajeesh Joseph (Railways, 1:47.42) 1; Rajeev R (Railways) 2; Prakash Verma (Delhi) 3. 400M hurdles: Kuldev Singh (AIPSCB, 50.70S) 1; P Shankar (ONGC) 2; Jitender Singh (SSCB) 3. 4x100M relay: Railways (40.42S) 1; Services 2; Tamil Nadu 3. 4x400M relay: Railways (3:10.20) 1; Services 2; Gujarat 3.
Women: 400M hurdles: V Leelavathi (Tamil Nadu, 1:00.3) 1; Shalin Joseph (Railways) 2; Pooja Jakhar (ONGC) 3. 800M: Sinimol Paulose (SPSB, 2:02.02) 1; Sushma Devi (Railways) 2; Vijila A (kerala) 3. 4x100M relay: Railways (45.24S, NMR. Old: 45.25) 1; Andhra Pradesh 2; Karnataka 3. 4x400M: Railways (3:51.11) 1; West Bengal 2; Kerala 3.
