L Suriya caused the first major shock of the 52nd National Senior Open Athletic Championship that kicked off here at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Monday.
The Railways athlete produced a fine performance in the women’s 10000M, upsetting Asian Games champion Preeja Sreedharan with a timing of 35 minutes and 18.2 seconds to win the gold.
Preeja took silver with a 35:19.4 effort, LIC’s Monika Athare won the bronze after clocking 35:25.5.
Preeja did the front running in the initial stages before letting Monika take charge for a few laps. Preeja did regain the lead when the race entered the final phase. However, a gritty Suriya powered home in the last 200 metres to win the race.
With Commonwealth Games champion and London Olympics finalist Krishna Poonia staying away from the meet, the discus throw event was wide open. Pramila of Railways cashed in, notching up a mediocre throw of 49.08 metres to emerge victorious.
Rajasthan’s Kumari took silver a further 2.03 metres behind while Navjeet Kaur Dhillon of ONGC finished third with an effort of 46.45 metres.
Inderjeet Patel won the men’s 10000 metres with a timing of 29:42.76 with Services’ Kheta Ram (29.44.00) finishing second and ONGC’s Suresh Kumar (29:44.73) taking the third spot.
Men: 10000M: Inderjeet Patel (ONGC) 29:42.76, 1; Kheta Ram (Services) 29:44.00, 2; Suresh Kumar (ONGC) 29:44.73, 3.
Women: 10000M: L Suriya (Railways) 35:18.2, 1; Preeja Sreedharan (Railways) 35:19.4, 2; Monika Athare (LIC) 35:25.5, 3.
Long jump: Shraddha Ghule (Maharashtra) 6.36 metres, 1; S Delphin Rani (LIC) 6.32, 2; Susan K Joy (Railways) 5.99, 3. Discus: Pramila (Railways) 49.08 metres, 1; Praveen Kumari (Rajasthan) 47.05, 2; Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (ONGC) 46.45, 3.
Javelin throw: Annu Rani (UP) 49.58, 1; S Saraswathy (Railways) 48.66, 2; Aarti Maurya (UP) 46.48, 3.
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