Manjeet, Prakash provide fireworks

Joseph Abraham adjudged the best

On a day of encouraging performances, Punjab’s Manjeet struck gold in the women’s 400M in her season’s best of 52.74 seconds while Haryana shot-putter Om Prakash breached the 20M barrier for the first time en route to the gold.

No meet record came on the final day but their displays were indeed encouraging from the Asian Championships point of view. Manjeet, competing in only her third meet of the season, ran a well-judged race to push team-mate Mandeep Kaur (53.02) and Kerala’s Sini Jose (53.69) to the silver and bronze medals respectively.

“I am improving, but there’s still room for improvement,” said a delighted Manjeet, the national record holder at 51.05 seconds. “I should do better in the Asian meet.”
Om Prakash struggled to adjust to the circle here, but still managed to topple his previous best of 19.89 with a sixth-round effort of 20.02 metres. “We have a strong tradition in shot putt in the Asian meet; I want to maintain that,” said the 22-year-old from Gurgaon.

Surender Singh, Kavita Raut and MA Prajusha completed double successes. Surender and Kavita, winners in 5000M on day one, claimed the 10000M gold medals while Prajusha, the long jump winner, picked up the triple jump gold with 13.15M after fouling four of her jumps.

Chatholi Hamza had to wage a lone battle to win the 1500M title. R Rajeev and then Prakash Verma set the pace for Hamza but he had to run the final 500M all alone and considering that, his 3:41.62 was a commendable effort.

Open Nationals champion SK Mortaja maintained his form in the men’s 400, timing 46.66 for the crown. Bibin Mathew, the season’s leader, could only come third behind Harpreet Singh, struggling to up the pace after 250M. National record holder KM Binu pulled out of the final citing illness.

Kerala dethroned Jharkhand to win the overall championships with 12 gold medals while Joseph Abraham and Manjeet Kaur were adjudged the best athletes.

Results:
Men: 400M: SK Mortaja (Bengal) 46.66S, 1; Harpreet Singh (Punjab) 46.86, 2; Bibin Mathew (Jharkhand) 46.89, 3.

1500M: Chatholi Hamza (Kerala) 3:41.62, 1; Sunil Kumar (Haryana) 3:46.70, 2; P Ebinezer (Tamil Nadu) 3:46.76, 3.

10000M: Surender Singh (Uttarakhand) 29:47.49, 1; Suresh Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 30:08.42, 2; Tilak BC (Maharashtra) 30:14.61, 3.

Shot put: Om Prakash (Haryana) 20.02M, 1; Saurabh Vij (Delhi) 18.88 metres, 2; Satyender Kumar Singh (Jharkhand) 17.90, 3.

Hammer throw: Madhu Kumar (Haryana) 63.43M, 1; Pargat Singh (Punjab) 61.02, 2; Shiv Kumar (Uttarakhand) 60.47, 3.

4x100M relay: Kerala (Anoop PK, Dibin, Shameer, Arunjith) 40.50S, 1; Tamil Nadu 41.30, 2; Andhra Pradesh 42.40, 3.

4x400M relay: Kerala (Avin A Thomas, Kunju Muhammed, Joseph Abraham, Bineesh VB) 3:10.80, 1; Madhya Pradesh 3:11.46, 2; Punjab 3:14.35, 3.

Women: 400M: Manjeet Kaur (Punjab) 52.74S, 1; Mandeep Kaur (Punjab) 53.02, 2; Sini Jose (Kerala) 53.69, 3.

1500M: Sushma Devi (Delhi) 4:19.14, 1; SR Bindu (Kerala) 4:21.10, 2; Sinimole Paulose (Jharkhand) 4:22.87, 3.

10000M: Kavita Raut (Maharashtra) 34:27.62, 1; Preethi L Rao (Jharkhand) 36:03.33, 2; Rita Kumari (Himachal Pradesh) 37:47.21, 3.

Triple jump: MA Prajusha (Kerala) 13.15M, 1; Gayathry Govindarajan (Tamil Nadu) 12.93, 2; Tessymole Joseph (Kerala) 12.87, 3.

Javelin: S Saraswathy (Tamil Nadu) 52.84M, 1; Suman Devi (Uttar Pradesh) 49.10, 2; Megha Pardeshi (Maharashtra) 47.83, 3.

Heptathlon: Sindhu KD (Kerala) 4882 points, 1; Navpreet Kaur (Punjab) 4729, 2; Liksy Joseph (Kerala) 4595, 3.

4x100M relay: Andhra Pradesh (N Sudha, S Geetha, K Soujanya, HM Jyothi) 46.39S, 1; Tamil Nadu 46.69, 2; Kerala 47.30, 3.

4x400M relay: Kerala (Shiji John, Sindhyamole, Anu Raghavan, Sini Jose) 3:42.67, 1; Andhra Pradesh 3:45.28, 2; Tamil Nadu 3:52.46, 3.

Team championships: Overall: Kerala 1; Punjab 2; Jharkhand 3. Men: Kerala 1; Punjab 2; Haryana 3. Women: Kerala 1; Tamil Nadu 2; Andhra Pradesh 3. Best athletes: Men: Joseph Abraham (Kerala). Women: Manjeet Kaur (Punjab).