Metlife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship 2005 ::Bangalore::

Championship News

Ghamanda Ram commands the day…"
Bangalore, 6^th July 2005: Armyman Ghamanda Ram, running for the Rajasthan state, won his second gold medal in style in the Metlife National Inter-State Senior Athletic Championships here at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
             Running a tactical race Ghamanda Ram was pushed throughout the two laps by the ace Kerala athlete P.S. Primesh.   At the end the Ghamanda Ram clocked his personal best 1:47.99, which was incidentally a new meet record and placed him as 6^th in the Indian all-time rankings. Primesh cloked 1:51.22 for the silver while host’s J.M. Mathew took the bronze at 1:52.88.
             The second athlete to secure a double was S. Shanthi of Tamil Nadu. Shanthi, who rewrote the national mark in women’s 3,000m steeplechase on the second day, went on to win the 800m in a creditable time of 2:07.76, just 8/100^th seconds off her personal best.
           Shanthi made an all out effort in a neck-to-neck race with S. Geetha of Andhra Pradesh. Geetha, the winner of 400m yesterday, edged out Jharkand’s Sinimol Paulose to get the silver at 2:08.06.
           Gajanan Upadhyay continued his triumphant march at the national meets added one more title by winning the men’s pole vault here after scaling a new meet mark of 4.95m. The event had been postponed yesterday due to rain and held this morning under stormy wind. Apart from whether the crossbar, which was fallen often due to wind, and the vaulting box also deter the chance of the athletes going higher.
          Wirkd rank no. 19 Neelam Jaswant Singh was another athlete who caught the attention of the spectators as the experienced discus thrower added one more gold medal to her kitty with a throw of 57.52m.
          As expected Chitra K Soman (Jharkand) and Patlavath Shankar (Andhra Pradesh) proved too good in 400m hurdles by cloking 59.62 secs and 50.97 secs to become victor in the women and men’s races respectively.
         Anil Kumar ran a splendid race in men’s 200m clocked a modest 21 secs flat against a head-wind of 1.3 metres per second. Local favourite Vilas Neelagund took the silver (21.08) just ahead of A. Aravind of Tamil Nadu (21.11).
       Kerala took the men’s team title after battle it out with the defending champions Punjab. Tamil Nadu women amazed medals and become clear winners and thus helped the state to take the overall crown.
      Andhra Pradesh’s P. Shankar and S. Geetha declared as the best athletes of the meet in the men and women divisions respectively.   /Ram. Murali Krishnan/

A bolt from the blue…
Bangalore, 5^th July 2005: She appeared like the saying, in an attractive blue vest, in front of an enthusiastic crowd sitting on stands at Sree Kanteerava Stadium here and watching the role model of Indian athletics Anju Bobby George jumping in the first competition on home soil well after 14 months.
             Anju landed on the sand pit with 6m plus in all her--nay one jump--and took the gold with a modest 6.09m for her adopted state of Tamil Nadu for a 1-2-3 finish in the Metlife National Inter-State Senior Athletic Championships.
Revathi Krishnan, the silver medallist at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Bendigo and the winner in FedCup and Noosheen Rajendran settled for the next two slots with jumps of 5.86 and 5.85m respectively.
           The men’s 110m hurdles saw the best line-up with country’s top athletes vie for the honour of national champion. With the personal best 14.20s from the recent Asian Grand Prix series, Krishna Mohan of Andhra Pradesh was the pre-race favourite. However national and meet record-holder Gurpreet Singh’s presence made the going tough today for the rest of the athletes. Gurpreet won the race with comfortable ease with 14.37 secs.Krishna Mohan (14.43s) and Prince Mathew (14.56s) followed in that order.
                 Satti Geetha was another athlete returned with a personal best 52.04s from the Asian GP. National record-holder Manjit Kaur and her team-mate Rajwinder Kaur Gill of Punjab sent a warning after the qualifying rounds. But the spirited Geetha overcome the opposition with determined effort to finish first in the women’s 400m. Incidentally today being Geetha’s birthday the victory arrived as a formidable gift to the Andhra Pradesh athlete.
               Haryana’s quarter-miler Satbir Singh made a comeback in men’s 400m after a hard-fought victory from AP’s Patlavath Shankar. Satbir clocked 46.49 to Shankar’s 46.79 secs. Incidentally Shankar’s time was his personal best.
             One other event which was the eye-catching of the sizeable crowd which present on the third day of the national meet, the men’s high jump could have produced better marks had there been no interruption from the intermittent showers which caused some concerns at the fag-end of the days proceedings with women’s long jump held simultaneously on the other side of the sporting arena.
Results:
Men:
400m: 1. Satbir Singh (Haryana) 46.49 secs; 2. Patlavath Shankar (Andhra Pradesh) 46.79 secs; 3. Anil Kumar Rohil (Delhi) 47.19 secs; 110m Hurdles (wind: +0.5 m/s): 1. Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) 14.37 secs; 2. Krishna Mohan (Andhra Pradesh) 14.43 secs; 3. Prince Mathew (Kerala) 14.56 secs; High Jump: 1. Benedict Starli (Tamil Nadu) 2.11m; 2. K.R. Roshan (Kerala) 2.08m; 3. S. Sreenath (Karnataka) 2.08m; Hammer Throw: 1. Harpal Singh (Punjab) 64.66m; 2. Madhu Kumar (Haryana) 62.54m; 3. Pargat Singh (Punjab) 59.64m; Decathlon: 1. Kulwinder Singh (Punjab) 6943 points; 2. Jora Singh (Haryana) 6896 pts; 3. Mandeep Kumar (Andhra Pradesh) 6858 pts; 20 KM Walk: 1. Gurdev Singh (Punjab) 64.66m; 2. P.S. Jalan (Kerala) 1::30:45; 3. Gurmit Singh (Punjab) 1::32:06;  4x100m Relay: 1. Karnataka (Parasuram, Parameshwar, Vilas Neelgund, Md. Mudassir) 40.61 secs; 2. Kerala (Jiby Peter, K.K. Biju, V.V. Girish, Anil Kumar) 40.95 secs; 3. Tamil Nadu (G. Manickavasagam, A. Aravind, P. Muthusamy, H. Jayachandran) 41.65 secs;
Women:
400m: 1. Satti Geetha (Andhra Pradesh) 52.49 secs; 2. Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Punjab) 53.02; 3. Manjit Kaur (Punjab) 53.92; 100m Hurdles (wind: +1.0 m/s): 1. K.N. Priya (Tamil Nadu) 13.72 secs; 2. Anuradha Biswal (Orissa) 13.84 secs; 3. Simi Sebastian (Kerala) 14.28 secs; Long Jump: 1. Anju B George (Tamil Nadu) 6.09m (wind: +0.8 m/s); 2. K. Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 5.86m (w: +0.4 m/s); 3. Noosheen Rajendran (Tamil Nadu) 5.85m (w: +2.1 m/s); 4x100m Relay: 1. Kerala (V.D. Shijila, K.M. Greeshma, Sreelekha, Simi Sebastian) 47.56; 2. Tamil Nadu (Saradha Narayan, K. Muthulakshmi, R. Elavarasi, K.N. Priya) 47.97; 3. Karnataka (G.D. Gowramma, H.M. Jyothi, Poonam Belliappa, Yamini D Rao) 48.26; (Report by :Ram Murli Krishnan )

“S. Shanthi of Tamilnadu produced National record in 3000m Steeplechase”

Bangalore, July 4, 2005: S. Shanthi of Tamilnadu created the New National record in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with 10:44.65s here in the second day of the Metlife National Interstate Senior Athletics Champ’ ship progressing at Sree Kanteerava Stadium.

In the morning session Shanthi had ran in the 800m heats while yesterday she had participated in the 1500m run. But gold came in the 3000m steeplechase and that too with National Record. B. L Bharthi of Karnataka took second place by clocking 11:38.7s. A. Papathi of Tamilnadu took the bronze.

Day started with record breaking effort from National record holder in women 20km walk Y. Bala Devi of West Bengal who smashed the Yasmin Kaur’s meet record with 1::44:37.00Hr.. Although she could not improved her own record. Amandeep Kaur of Punjab took second place with 1::45:43.0hr while L. Deepmala Devi of Manipur took bronze medal.

There was high drama in the final of the men’s 100m race where Sandip Sarkaria , Jayachandran and Vilas Nilagund dipped at the finish line almost at the same time which forced photo finish judges to go more in details of the finish sequence to determine winner and they confirmed Sandip as a winner. Sandip Sarkaria of Delhi is the Fastest man of the Championship with 10.45s. while H. Jayachandran had to settled on the silver with 10.47s. Local favorite Vilas Nilagund took third spot with 10.47s.

In the women 100m race, pre race favorite Deepthi Jose of Kerala ,leading till 90m but failed to finish on the first spot due to strain in hamstring muscle which paved way for Greeshma to take the title with 11.94s. while another local favorite athlete G. D. Gowramma beat Deepthi for the second place with 11.97s. Deepthi finished third with 12.02s.

In the absence of Navpreet Singh and Ranvijay Singh, Veteran Shakti Singh of Haryana heaved the put to the season best distance of 18.80m to claim gold medal . P B Giri of Madhya Pradesh was too good to beat Jaiveer Singh with 18.15m. Jaiveer finished on the third place with 17.94m.

“ Chetna retained her title in women Pole vault.”

July 3, 2005: Chetna Solanki not only defended her title in the women pole vault but also equaled her own meet record of 3.50m set in Chennai last year today at the inaugural day of the MetLife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship at Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore. Her training partner and arch rival V. S. Sureka of Tamilnadu too cleared 3.50m but on the count back of attempts she settled on silver medal. Upcoming Gitanjali Bora from Assam took bronze with 3.30m.

Asian Games record holder Sunita Rani maintained winning streak at Domestic level with another win in the women’s 1500m run with 4:25.13s. S. Shanti of Tamilnadu and Jaisha O.P. of Kerala bagged Silver and Bronze medal respectively.

Ghamanda Ram of Rajasthan improved his season leading mark to 3:49.12s in the men’s 1500m run by winning the event with considerable lead. He beat Pritam Kumar Bind of Uttranchal who finished on second place with 3:52.73s while Sunil Kumar Singh of Haryana ended with bronze medal with 3:56.31s

Ritu Rani of Uttar Pradesh faced her first defeat of the season in the Hammer Throw when her teammate Usma Daryan hurled 4kg Hammer to 55.73m to claim Gold medal. Rajwinder Kaur Jr. of Punjab also surpassed Ritu to finish on second position with 54.75. Ritu could manage only 53.39m, well below to her season best.

In the women’s 25 lap race National record holder L. Aruna Devi of West Bengal attached another National title with 36:55.53s while Federation Cup champion and teammate Pampa Chanda finished one lap behind to Aruna with 38:22.99s while host athlete Preethi L. Rao took third position with 38:47.37s.

In men’s 100m semis Sandip Sarkaria, Piyush Kumar , Vilas Nilagund, Ganesh Satpute sailed to the finals comfortably. Fastest man of the Championship will be the winner of tomorrow’s 100m final which will be held at 2:50pm.

July 1,2005: Bangalore is all set to host India's biggest and most important MetLife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium from July 3-6,2005. Karnataka Athletic Association will conduct this championship under the aegis of Athletics Federation of India.

India's leading insurance company MetLife has come forward to sponsor this championship. Insurance and Sport has a perfect fit. All over the world sports persons had secured themselves by insurance as you never know when you will be out of game.

More than 600 athletes from 23 states will vie for the AFI's prestigious National Championship trophy. This championship is also the basis for the selection of Indian Athletic Team for the upcoming World Championship in Athletics at Helsinki in August 2005 and probables for the Asian Athletics Championship at Korea.

India's ace jumper Anju George will be the attraction of the championship. Other champion's including Neelam Singh, Seema Antil, harwant Kaur, Jagdish Bishnoi, Anil Kumar, Piyush Kumar, Navpreet Singh, Shakti Singh, Ranvijay Singh, Amritpal Singh , Chitra Soman, S. Geetha, Manjit Kaur and Rajwinder Kaur will also be seen in action.

DD Sports will cover championship live on all four days from 2pm to 6pm.