Annu sets new mark; 6th title for Sahana

Kerala bag overall crown

A national record in women’s javelin throw for Annu Rani and a sixth straight success in high jump for Sahana Kumari highlighted the final day of the 56th Inter State Athletics Championships but demanding more attention was action in the two 4x400M relays.

Olympic qualification in the two races was the sole focus and with that goal in mind, teams from Sri Lanka had been flown in to meet the mandatory requirement. As it turned out, the women’s team consolidated its position while the men’s quartet fell just short and will have to look for another competition to meet their target.

The India ‘A’ team, comprising Anilda Thomas, Tintu Luka, M R Poovamma and Nirmala Sheoran, timed 3:29.08 -- their season’s best ahead of the 3:30.16 timed at Erzurum last month – to move up by a notch to 12th on the world lists. The top-16 teams by the July 11 deadline, after taking the aggregate of their two best times in the qualification period, get entry to Rio.

In a late change, Nirmala was brought into the ‘A’ team, pushing Jisna Mathew to the ‘B’ team, also featuring Anu Raghavan, Ashwini Akkunji and Debashree Majumdar. Jisna anchored the team to second position in 3:32.45.

The India ‘A’ men’s team needed to clock 3:03.34 to be within the top-16 from their current 21st position. But the quartet comprising P Kunhimohammed, Mohd Anas, A Dharun and Arokia Rajiv lost a precious second in the final baton exchange and finished in 3:03.71, taking them to 17th place. The Sri Lankans were fourth in both the relays.

Earlier, Uttar Pradesh’s Annu Rani erased her javelin national mark of 59.53 with a 59.87M throw but she missed out on the Olympic qualification mark of 61.00M. “The wind posed a problem,” said a disappointed Annu, who had set the previous mark at the Asian Games in Incheon two years ago.

Sahana Kumari too was a dejected lady in the high jump pit, despite extending her winning streak to six. It was her 11th title in the Inter-State meet overall but having gone to Ukraine on a training mission, she expected to do better than the poor 1.79 she recorded on the day.

“I had put in all the work and had done very well in training too but somehow I couldn’t perform today. If I had someone guiding me here, I could have done better,” said the Karnataka jumper, who had set the national record of 1.92M here to qualify for London Olympics four years ago.

Elsewhere, Tamil Nadu’s G Lakshmanan and L Suriya completed their distance doubles while Gomathi too struck a double with victory in the 1500M, having won the 800M earlier. Kerala won the overall team championships for the eighth straight time while Jithin Paul (400M hurdles) and Nirmala, the lone Rio qualifier from here, were named best athletes.

Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of India stated in a release that the venue of the Indian Grand Prix, to be staged on July 10 and 11, will be announced next week. Earlier, Bengaluru was named as the venue.

Results: Men: 200M: Dharambir (Haryana) 20.90 seconds, 1; Sanjeet (Haryana) 21.04, 2; Manikanda Arumugam (Tamil Nadu) 21.69, 3.

1500M: Siddhant Adhikar (Assam) 3:54.64, 1; Sandeep (Haryana) 3:54.94, 2; Rahul (Delhi) 3:56.01, 3.

10000M: G Lakshmanan (Tamil Nadu) 29:38.49, 1; Kheta Ram (Rajasthan) 29:57.54, 2; T Gopi (Uttarakhand) 30:37.69, 3.

High jump: Sahana Kumari (Karnataka) 1.79 metres, 1; Angel P Devassia (Kerala) 1.73, 2; Vinotha (Tamil Nadu) 1.60, 3.

Javelin: Amit Kumar (Andhra Pradesh) 79.14 metres, 1; Ravinder Singh (Punjab) 78.11, 2; Vipin Kasana (Uttar Pradesh) 77.94, 3.

4x400M relay: India ‘A’ (Kunhimohammed, Mohd Anas, A Dharun, Arokia Rajiv) 3:03.71, 1; India ‘B’ 3:05.93, 2; India ‘C’ 3:12.46, 3.

Women: 200M: Santini V S (Gujarat) 23.88 seconds, 1; Reena George (Karnataka) 24.25, 2; Archana (Tamil Nadu) 24.74, 3.

1500M: Gomathi (Tamil Nadu) 4:22.42, 1; Chitra P U (Kerala) 4:24.47, 2; Sugandha Kumari (West Bengal) 4:25.54, 3.

5000M: L Suriya (Tamil Nadu) 15:59.60, 1; Swati Gadhave (Maharashtra) 16:08.30, 2; Sanjivani Jadhav (Maharashtra) 16:47.80, 3.

Javelin: Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 59.87 metres (National record. Old: 59.53, Annu Rani, Incheon 2014), 1; Suman Devi (Uttar Pradesh) 55.88, 2; Kumari Sarmila (Haryana) 53.80, 3.

4x400M relay: India ‘A’ (Anilda, Tintu, Poovamma, Nirmala) 3:29.04, 1; India ‘B’ (Anu R, Ashwini Akkunji, Debashree Majumdar, Jisna Mathew) 3:32.45, 2; India ‘C’ (Jauna Murmu, Priyanka Panwar, Sini Jose) 3:34.94, 3.

Team championships: Kerala (164 points) 1; Tamil Nadu (150) 2. Best athlete: Men: Jithin Paul (400M hurdles, 50.41). Women: Nirmala (400M, 51.48).