JOIN USAbhishek pockets decathlon gold
After two days of toil, only two points separated the champion from his nearest rival. And standing tall at the very end was Abhishek N Shetty of Karnataka, relieved and delighted in equal measure after a hard-fought competition.
The second day of athletics at the 35th National Games was about big feats – by Ankit Sharma in long jump (8.04M) and Inderjeet Singh in shot put (20.14M). In the background, Abhishek quietly worked his way to script his own big feat, winning the decathlon gold medal with a career best of 6805 points.
The 22-year-old from Puttur led the field from the start but only narrowly. And going into the final event, the 1500M, he had a 32-point lead over Kerala’s V V Raneesh. An almighty effort was needed to stay ahead and Abhishek produced just that, a personal best of 4:37.98 keeping him ahead, only just.
Raneesh, timing 4:25.06, ended at 6803 points in silver position while another Kerala athlete, Muhammed Hafseer, finished third at 6675 points. “You could have run a little slower, couldn’t you,” Raneesh asked Abhishek in jest. Abhishek smiled. He was in no mood to do favours, even to the man who was instrumental in bringing him to decathlon.
“I used to play volleyball in my PU days and then shifted to high jump. Raneesh only urged me to switch to decathlon and I started doing it, about three years ago,” said the Western Railway employee, who set five personal bests en route to the gold, in 100M, shot put, 400M, 110M hurdles, besides the 1500M. It has been a tough journey for Abhishek, with him having to take loss of pay leave to train, but it all seemed well worth it on the day.
Ankit had a terrific series in the long jump pit, becoming the fifth Indian to go past the eight-metre mark, after T C Yohannan, Sanjay K Rai, Amritpal Singh and Kumarvel Premkumar. The MP jumper started with a 7.44M effort and then leapt to 7.73, 7.96, 8.04, 7.93 and 7.98, blitzing the field that included Premkumar. Syam Kumar’s 21-year-old Games record of 7.79 was reduced to dust in the process.
The gold was settled after the first round itself, with Premkumar’s game efforts not taking him anywhere close. The national record holder at 8.09M, he had a best of 7.68 on the night while Karnataka’s Samsheer S E, a final year BBM student at Alva’s, took the bronze at 7.68.
Inderjeet’s personal best of 20.14 metres, a Games record, came in the fifth round. “I was determined to go past the 20M mark and was very confident of doing it. It might be off-season for others but not for me,” said the Haryana man.
The shot put final was delayed by ninety minutes due to an issue with the implement to be used. The athletes wanted a shot with upto 130mm diameter while the organisers had implements with 125mm diameter. It was finally sourced from Laxmibhai National College of Physical Education, about 15km away, before the event could start.
Dutee Chand meanwhile returned to the track in style, breaking the meet record twice en route to the 100M final. She first clocked 11.83 to smash H M Jyothi’s mark of 11.84 and then timed 11.75 in the semifinals. But that too didn’t stay long, with Reshma Sherigar of Maharashtra clocked 11.70 in the third semifinal. Karnataka’s Jyothi didn’t make the final.
Results:
Men: Shot put: Inderjeet Singh (Haryana) 20.14M (NMR. Old. 19.38, Bahadur Singh, 2001), 1; Satyendra Kumar Singh (UP) 18.24, Om Prakash Singh (Haryana) 17.95, 3.
Long jump: Ankit Sharma (Madhya Pradesh) 8.04 metres (NMR. Old: 7.79, Syam Kumar, 1994), 1; K Premkumar (Tamil Nadu) 7.68, 2; Shamsher S E (Karnataka) 7.46, 3.
Decathlon: Abhishek Shetty (Karnataka) 6805 points, 1; Raneesh V V (Kerala) 6803, 2; Muhammed Hafseer (Kerala) 6675, 3.
Women: 1500M: Monika Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 4:22.01, 1; Sini A Markose (Kerala) 4:23.03, 2; Sushma Devi (Haryana) 4:24.01, 3.
Shot put: Navjit Kaur (Punjab) 15.67 metres, 1; Manpreet Kaur (Punjab) 14.43, 2; Harkirat Kaur (Chandigarh) 13.85, 3.
Hammer throw: Sarita Singh (Odisha) 56.47, 1; K M Rachna (Punjab) 56.08, 2; Ritu Dhiman (Uttar Pradesh) 55.60, 3.