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Sumaya clinches 200M title

Athletics Open Nationals:Suspended Dharambir returns to bag mens gold
Last Updated 13 September 2012, 17:22 IST

Bebi Sumaya fetched Karnataka their second gold medal of the 52nd Open National Athletics Championships, triumphing in the women’s 200 metres on the concluding day here on Thursday.

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Sumaya clocked 24.91 seconds to finish ahead of defending champion Asha Roy of Railways and LIC’s V Santhini. Khyathi Vakharia had won Karnataka’s first gold in pole vault on Wednesday.

The men’s 200M dash saw LIC’s Dharambir returning to the competition in victorious fashion. Dharambir had been suspended and stripped of his gold in the 100M by the Athletics Federation of India at the Inter-State meet at Hyderabad in July after her failed to turn up for a dope test.

However, the athlete from Haryana was subjected to a test later and AFI officials said he had cleared it, paving the way for his return. On Thursday, he clocked 21.00 seconds while the second-placed Manikanda Arumugam (Railways) was 0.8 seconds behind.
“I had a point to prove after I lost my gold medal in Hyderabad,” Dharambir said when asked about AFI’s disciplinary proceedings against him.

Tintu Luka comfortably won the women’s 800 metres in 2:04.69 but her junior in Usha School of Athletics, Jessy Joseph, was sent tumbling down by ONGC’s Jyoti Rani a few metres from the finish. Jessy managed to finish the race in 2:31.41. S R Bindu claimed the silver in 2:10.40 while Jyoti who clocked 2:10.72 for the third spot, was disqualified. Sajeesh Joseph, the 1500M champion defeated Ghamanda Ram in the men’s 800 metres for a double.

M M Anchu easily won the women’s 100M hurdles in 14.40 seconds. Meghana Shetty, the 16-year-old Karnataka girl who represents ONGC, could not repeat her timing of 14.55 in the heats and finished third, clocking 14.64. C T Raji of Punjab claimed silver.

Suriya Loganathan completed a distance double, winning the 5000M to add to the 10000M she won on the first day. Suriya warded off the challenge from her Railway team-mate O P Jaisha and LIC’s Monika Athare to emerge first in 17:29.94.

In the men’s race Indrajeet Patel was beaten to second place by Asian junior champion Rahul Kumar Pal who timed 14:14.64 for the gold. Patel clocked 14:15.12 for silver while the bronze went to Nitinder Singh of Services in 14:16.71.

Kumaravel Premkumar, the only Indian medallist in this year’s Asian Indoor championships at Hangzhou (China), proved his mettle once again by topping the long jump field that included Ankit Sharma and Mohd Arshad. The Tamil Nadu jumper had a best effort of 7.72M. Ankit pipped Arshad for the silver medal, 7.60 to 7.59M.

Indian Railways won the overall championship with 327 points. Services team, which finished runners-up with 138 points, had the satisfaction of taking the men’s team title. High jumper Jithin Thomas and Tintu were adjudged best athletes among men and women respectively.


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(Published 13 September 2012, 17:22 IST)

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