Elam Singh in the men’s race and Sudha Singh in the women’s event were the gold medal winners on another hot and humid evening at the Maharaja’s College stadium, proclaiming that they were a cut above the competition at this level.
Unimaginative programming, with field events dominating the card, had brought interest levels to a minimum when first Sudha and then Elam snatched centre stage. Sudha, the undisputed queen of the 3000 steeplechase in the last few years, affirmed her status with another national record while Elam proved a point, sinking a 26-year-old meet mark.
In the Federation Cup at Ranchi earlier this month, Elam’s Services team-mate R Ramachandran had come out of nowhere to win the gold in 8:44.33.
The 28-year-old from Uttarakhand was keen to set the record straight and he ran a well-calculated race on the day.
It was a three-horse race between Elam, Ramachandran and Pritam Bind, Elam taking the decisive lead with two-and-a-half laps to go. Putting in a terrific sprint down the straight, he timed 8:39.18, erasing Gopal Saini’s mark of 8:40.05 set in 1984. Elam’s previous best was the 8:41.81 timed while finishing fourth at the Asian Championships in Guangzhou last year.
In a complete reversal of the Ranchi result, Bind took silver in 8:49.49 and Ramachandran was third in 8:50.79.
In contrast, it was a start-to-finish affair for Sudha in the women’s event and with none to push her, she really had to dig deep to come up with something special.
The 24-year-old from Rai Bareilly erased the 10:10.77 she timed to win the Asian silver last year, clocking 10:09.56 with a gritty run in the straight.
Karnataka had a gold and silver on the day, both in women’s high jump. Kavya Muthanna achieved her personal best of 1.78M to defend the gold won at Bhopal last year, with team-mate KC Chandanna picking up the silver at 1.75. Favourite Sahana Kumari, struggling with conjunctivitis, shared bronze with three others at 1.70.
Kavya, a final semester computer science student of Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology, said she was hoping to come close to 1.80M. “I hope to do better in the coming competitions,” said the Bangalorean who had a previous best of 1.76M.
Gayathry Govindarajan of Tamil Nadu won her second gold medal, claiming the 100M hurdles in 13.88 seconds. The 19-year-old from Chennai had won the triple jump on the second day.
Results: Men: 110M hurdles: P Muthu Swami (Railways) 14.31 seconds, 1; Sandeep Parmar (Maharashtra) 14.40, 2; Raghavendra Singh (Police) 14.55, 3.
3000M steeplechase: Elam Singh (Services) 8:39.18 (New Meet Record. Old: 8:40.05, Gopal Saini 1984), 1; Pritam Bind (Uttaranchal) 8:49.49, 2; R Ramachandran (Services) 8:50.79, 3.
Pole vault: Gajanan Upadhyay (Railways) 5.00M, 1; N Vadivel (Tamil Nadu) 4.80, 2; Suresh (Haryana) 4.70, 3.
Discus: Simranjit Singh (Police) 52.47 metres, 1; Vipender Singh (Services) 51.06, 2; Amritpal Singh (Railways) 50.91, 3.
20000M Walk: Babubhai Panucha (Services) 1:33:22.56, 1; Harvinder Singh (Services) 1:33:36.10, 2; K Somendra Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 1:34:43.00, 3.
4x100M relay: Railways 41.48 seconds, 1; Services 41.59, 2; Tamil Nadu 42.46, 3.
Women: 100M hurdles: Gayathry Govindarajan (Tamil Nadu) 13.88 seconds, 1; Anuradha Biswal (Orissa) 14.04, 2; Anchu MM (Railways) 14.16, 3.
3000M steeplechase: Sudha Singh (Railways) 10:09.56 (National record. Old 10:10.77, Sudha Singh, Guangzhou, 2009), 1; Kiran Tiwari (Railways) 10:25.11, 2; Priyanka Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 10:25.13, 3.
High jump: Kavya Muthanna (Karnataka) 1.78 metres, 1; Chandana KC (Karnataka) 1.75, 2; Mallika Mondal (Railways), Siji NK (Railways) and Sahana Kumari (Railways) 1.70, 3.
Javelin: Saraswathi (Railways) 49.47 metres, 1; T Patel (Police) 46.05, 2; Megha Pardeshi (Railways) 45.79, 3.
4x100M relay: Railways 46.47 seconds, 1; Kerala 48.12, 2; Tamil Nadu 48.77, 3.
