Poor organisation marred the first Indian Grand Prix athletics meet here, with a power failure preventing the use of photofinish equipment, thereby rendering the efforts of athletes worthless from the point of view of records.
Odisha athletes Amiya Kumar Mallick and Srabani Nanda were given incredible timings of 10.09 seconds and 11.23 seconds -- both better than the national records -- in the men’s and women’s 100M races. But it emerged later that the track events were hand-timed due to power failure.
With only electronic timings being accepted for record purposes as well as for Olympic qualification, the athletes will now have to wait till the Federation Cup, later this month, to stake their claims.
In the men’s 400M men, Mohammad Anas was credited with 45.41 seconds, better than K M Binu’s national mark of 45.48, set in 2004 at Athens. But even that mark went up in smoke, once it emerged that the timings were manually done. Anas finished ahead of the fancied Arokia Rajiv and Kunhu Muhammed.
Poovamma second
Favourite M R Poovamma also had to be content with the second spot, with Anilda Thomas winning the 400 metres. Discus thrower Krishna Poonia, returning after a long absence, also finished second, behind Navjot Kaur (55.73 metres). Krishna had a best of 55.22 on the day.
