Premkumar sparkles

Tamil Nadu long jumper breaks into 8-metre club

 Tamil Nadu long jumper Kumarvel Premkumar broke into the elite club of 8-metre jumpers with a spectacular performance on the second day of the National Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.

Premkumar leapt to 8.00 metres, becoming only the fourth Indian to achieve such a feat to win the gold medal ahead of Karnataka’s M Arshad, who himself had an impressive 7.85 metres for the silver.

In fact, Arshad was in lead with his excellent effort in the penultimate round but the 20-year-old Premkumar dashed his hopes with a huge leap to join T C Yohannan, Sanjay Rai and Amritpal Singh as 8-metre jumpers in India. Amritpal holds the national record at 8.08 metres.

In spite of his best effort, Prem Kumar missed the World championships qualification by 10 cm. “I am confident of making the podium in the Asian championships and also claim a berth to the Worlds at Pune” he said.

Karnatataka won two gold medals on the day, through Sahana Kumari in the women’s high jump and M R Poovamma in the women’s 400 metres. However, both failed to go under the World Championship qualifying standards.

After clearing 1.88, Sahana attempted 1.92, the World Championship ‘B’ standard, but fell short in her attempts. Poovamma clocked 52.85 to win the 400 metres, against the norm of 52.35.

Tintu Luka claimed the women’s 800 metres in 2:04.14, failing to come near the standard of 2:01.50 while P Kunhumohammed overturned the formbook in the men’s 400M, pushing Arokia Rajiv to third place, timing 46.71.

Favourte Om Prakash Singh was relegated to third position in men’s shot put, managing only 18.30 metres.

Results: Men: 400M: P Kunhumohammed (Kerala) 46.71 seconds, 1; Neeraj Pawar (Uttar Pradesh) 46.97, 2; Arokia Rajiv (Tamil Nadu) 47.08, 3. 800M: Sajeesh Joseph (Kerala) 1:49.04, 1; Manjit Singh (Haryana) 1:49.11, 2; Francis Sagayaraj (Tamil Nadu) 1:49.77, 3. 110M hurdles: Pinto Mathew (Kerala) 14.56 seconds, 1; Balamurugan (Tamil Nadu) 14.76, 2; Sandeep Parmar (Maharashtra) 14.82, 3. Long jump: Premkumar (Tamil Nadu) 8.00 metres, 1; M Arshad (Karnataka) 7.85, 2; Ankit Sharma (Madhya Pradesh) 7.67, 3.

Shot put: Inderjeet Singh (Haryana) 18.92 metres, 1; Satyendra Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 18.35, 2; Om Prakash Singh (Haryana) 18.30, 3. Javelin: Krishan Kumar Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 74.80 metres, 1; Samarjeet Singh (Rajasthan) 73.16, 2; Rajender Singh (Haryana) 72.96, 3. Decathlon: Bharatinder Singh (Haryana) 6963 points, 1; Daya Ram (Rajasthan) 6346, 2; K Dilip Kumar (Maharashtra) 6195, 3. Women: 400M: M R Poovamma (Karnataka) 52.85 seconds, 1; Nirmala (Haryana) 53.94, 2; Anu Mariam Jose (Kerala) 54.59, 3. 800M: Tintu Luka (Kerala) 2:04.14, 1; Gomathi (Tamil Nadu) 2:07.33, 2; Sushma Devi (Haryana) 2:07.95, 3. 100M hurdles: Gayathri Govindarajan (Tamil Nadu) 13.97 seconds, 1; Hemasree J (Tamil Nadu) 14.04, 2; Sajitha K V (Kerala) 14.33, 3. High jump: Sahana Kumari (Karnataka) 1.88 metres, 1; Mallika Mondal (West Bengal) 1.74, 2; Tintu N D (Kerala) 1.68, 3. Shot put: P Udaylaxmi (Andhra Pradesh) 13.68 metres, 1; Neha Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 13.56, 2; Navjit Kaur (Punjab) 13.49, 3.