Western Railway topped the table with 252.5 points. They also took the men’s team title (154.5) but were denied a clean sweep by Southern Railway women who won the crown with 106 points.
Though the highlight of the day were the four meet marks, the men’s 4x400M relay, the final event of the day, proved to be an edge-of-the-seat affair. The Southern Railway quartet of Balamurugan, Bibin Mathew, Binish V B and Joseph Abraham clocked three minutes 12.19 seconds to edge out Western Railway by four hundreths of a second (3:12.23).
It was the contest between Joseph, who was later adjudged the best male athlete, and S Prakash Verma, in the final leg that brought out all the excitement. Joseph was in cruise mode ahead of Verma but Verma close the gap and past the final bend the Western Railway runner came up with a rapid burst. Joseph, however, came up with a determined effort to hold his narrow lead for an exciting win.
In men’s long jump, Maha Singh of Northern Railway leapt to 7.82 metres to erase the previous meet mark of 7.79 set 11-years ago by Sanjay Kumar Rai of ER. There was much confusion and heated arguments after the distance, originally given out as 7.85, was altered much to the chagrin of the Northern Railway athlete.
Preeja Sreedharan of Southern Railway clocked 34:19.60 to finish first in the women’s 10,000M.
She broke her own meet record of 34:38.74 created last year. High jumper Sahana Kumari of SWR cleared 1.82 metres, three centimetres more then her own mark, while in the women’s 3000M steeplechase, Sudha Singh timed 10:34.80 to win the gold. The Central Railway steeplechaser, silver medalist at the recent Asian championships, sent into oblivion her own mark of 10:52.90 set two years ago.
Priyanka Panwar of Western Railway clinched the 200M title in 24.40 for her second gold to bag the best woman athlete award as well.
Results: Men: 200M: Arunjith (SR) 21.80, 1; Ritesh Anand (CR) 22.00, 2; T Kamat (WR) 22.10, 3. Hammer throw: Pargat Singh (RCF) 57.75, 1; Vikas Poonia (WR) 56.49, 2; Sunil Punia (CR) 54.34, 3. Long jump: Maha Singh (NR) 7.82, 1. NMR. Old: 7.79 (Sanjay Kumar Rai, ER, 1998); Rositto Sax (SWR) 7.52, 2; Renjith Maheswary (WR) 7.48, 3. High jump: Prince Jose (WR) 2.06, 1; Karthikeyan (SWR) 2.00, 2; Kamaljeet Singh (ECOR) 1.95, 3. 3000M steeplechase: Rati Ram Saini (NR) 9:25.60, 1; Ravindra Khade (WR) 9:27.80, 2; Amardeep Singh (WR) 9:33.40, 3. 4x400M relay: Southern Railway (Balamurugan, Bibin Mathew, Binish V B, Joseph Abraham) 3:12.19, 1; Western Railway (Avin thomas, Jithin Paul, Sunil Kumar, S Prakash Verma) 3:12.23, 2; Northern Railway (Satender Singh, Baljeet Singh, Gurpinder Singh, Neeraj Panwar) 3:18.26, 3.
Women: 200M: Priyanka Panwar (WR) 24.40, 1; Arjina Khatun (ER) 25.00, 2; Vinita Sahani (SECR) 25.40, 3. 20000M walk: L Deepmala Devi (ER) 1:51:19, 1; Supriya Adak (WR) 1:53:38, 2; Anitha M (SWR) 1:58:34, 3.
10000M: Preeja Sreedharan (SR) 34:19.60, 1. NMR. Old record: 34:38.74 (Preeja Sreedharan, SR, 2009); Preeti Rao (WR) 35:58.60, 2; Lalita Babar (CR) 36:18.20, 3.
High jump: Sahana Kumari (SWR) 1.82, 1. NMR. Old record: 1.79 (Sahana Kumari, 2009); Mallika Mondal (ER) 1.73, 2; Tessymol Joseph (CR) 1.70, 3.
Hammer throw: Ritu Rani (SECR) 57.75, 1; Ushma (WR) 52.84, 2; Gunjan Singh (ER) 50.80, 3. 3000M steeplechase: Sudha Singh (CR) 10:34.80, 1; NMR. Old: 10:52.90 (Sudha Singh, CR, 2007); Kiran Tiwari (WR) 10:55.30, 2; Rajshri Patil (WR) 10:58.20, 3. 4x400M relay: South Western Railway (Sona, Shiji John, Vijaya Lakshmi, Ashwini) 3:45.54, 1; Western Railway (Harpreet Kaur, Pooja Jakhar, Shalin Joseph, Priyanka Panwar) 3:46.57, 2; Southern Railway (Dayana John Selvan, Soniya VK, E Prathiba, Sini Jose) 3:49.54. Heptathlon: Pramila Aiyappa (SWR) 4787 points, 1; Sushmita Singha Roy (ER) 4308, 2; D Karpuramala (SR) 4083, 3.
Overall champions: Western Railway (252.5 points). Team winners: Men: Western Railway. Women: Southern Railway. Best athlete: Men: Joseph Abraham (SR, 1112 points). Women: Priyanka Panwar (WR, 1065).