JOIN USJithin Paul of Railways came up with a spirited run to defeat team-mate and Asian Games champion Joseph Abraham in the 400M hurdles in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix series here on Thursday.
On a day that witnessed some improved performances from athletes hoping to make the grade for the Olympic Games, Jithin clocked 50.44 seconds to edge out Abraham, who finished in 50.69.
Both of them, though, finished outside the Olympic ‘B’ standard of 49.80 seconds.
P Kunhu Mohammed of Services won the 400M in a personal best of 46.58 seconds, well outside the qualifying time of 45.70 while Renjith Maheswary also upped his level by a notch while winning the gold in triple jump. Renjith leapt to 16.70 metres in the second round, failing to touch the Olympic standard of 16.85M.
Karnataka’s M R Poovamma made it two in a row in the women’s 400M, clocking 54.36 seconds while Sinimole Paulose made a return to action in the 800M, taking the gold in 2:06.28.
Results:
Men: 400M: Kunhu Mohammed (Services) 46.58 seconds, 1; S K Mortaja (Bengal) 47.70, 2; Ajay Kumar (Haryana) 47.71, 3.
800M: Ravinder Rautela (Uttarakhand) 1:49.28, 1; Pankaj Dimri (Uttarakhand) 1:49.38, 2; Ghamanda Ram (ONGC) 1:49.75, 3.
400M hurdles: Jithin Paul (Railways) 50.44 seconds, 1; Joseph Abraham (Railways) 50.69, 2; Satinder Singh (Railways) 51.04, 3.
Long jump: Ankit Sharma (Madhya Pradesh) 7.62 metres, 1; Shamsher Pratap Singh (Punjab) 7.61, 2; Prem Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 7.42, 3. Triple jump: Renjith Maheswary (Railways) 16.70 metres, 1; Arpinder Singh (Punjab) 16.21, 2; Bhupender Singh (Punjab) 13.86, 3. Javelin throw: Rajender Singh (Punjab) 74.49 metres, 1; Samarjit Singh (Punjab) 67.56, 2; Arun Patel (Gujarat) 64.86, 3.
Women: 400M: M R Poovamma (Karnataka) 54.36 seconds, 1; Ratander Kaur (Punjab) 55.82, 2; K Sowjanya (AP) 56.12, 3. 800M: Sinimole Paulose (ONGC) 2:06.28, 1; Anupama Srivastava (UP) 2:12.68, 2.