|
Media Bulletin No. 5: Jumps Preview of the Metlife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship 2005 |
| June 30, 2005: In the
recent times Indian athletes had recorded impressive performances in the
vertical and horizontal jumping events of the Athletics. Especially women
athletes had shown drastic improvement in the jumping events. Long Jump: Anju George, India's first athlete to win World Championship medal in the women Long Jump and currently World rank No. 6 has confirmed her participation in the Senior Nationals at Bangalore. Nowadays her name has been almost harmonized with Long Jump in India. This has helped to widespread knowledge of athletics events in the country. She will make her first appearance in India after a gap of 14 months. Last time she participated in India was at the National Circuit meet in Delhi on Apr 15. After an average start of the 2005 season at Doha and USA, Anju took one month off from her overseas meets to correct her techniques and runway problem in the presence of her coach cum husband Bobby George at Bangalore. She had registered season leading mark of 6.46m at Doha on May 13. Anju will be seen in action at Sree Kanteerava Stadium after her National record mark in Triple Jump set in 2002, the event which she had won on three occasions from 1997-2002. In the past, Karnataka women's had dominated long jump event. Irena Saldhana had won four-in-a-row from 1970-73 while Angel Mary (1976-79) and Pramila Aiyappa (1999-2003) ended up winning three time each. In the men's section, national record holder Amripal Singh (8.08m) , recovered from hamstring injury is expected to hit the board to log another record jump. Season leader, Maha Singh's is yet to confirm his participation. Maha had won 2 Gold medals in the recently concluded Asian GP circuit with personal best of 7.99m. C. J. Clinton, another talented jumper from Kerala, the land of Great T. C. Yohanan and Suresh Bapu is raring to impress with his animated jumps. Former Asian Record holder and first Indian to cross 8m barrier, T. C. Yohannan (8.07m) had won men's Long jump on four occasions from 1972-78. Another Keralite jumper, C R Shyam Kumar (7.90m) took the title 4 times in the period of 1987-94. Sanjay Kumar Rai (8.03m) will not defend his title this year. Rai had won this event on three instances from 1998-2004. Triple Jump: This is the event where India's Mohinder Singh Gill had won medal at the Commonwealth Games and his record of 16.79m is yet to beat even after 34 years. But recently Amarjeet Singh of Punjab had come closer to this record with a meet record jump of 16.44m in the Chennai edition of Senior Nationals last year. He is on rank no. 3 this season with 15.68m recorded at the Inter-Railway championship at Delhi. Junior Ranjith M. is leading the season with 15.92m followed by Pritpal Singh of Punjab with 15.70m. These three jumpers had jumped beyond 16 meter mark in the past. It will be worth watching them battling for the top honour at Bangalore. Labh Singh holds distinction of winning men's Triple Jump event for record six times during 1964-70. While M. P. Ravikumar had won it 4 times during 1979-87. In the women's section Anisha V. is the only athletes to log 13m plus in triple jump in this season. She had won the federation cup title with 13.04m. Anju George is holding the meet record (13.52m) as well as National record (13.67m) in this event. Will Anisha better Anju's record? High jump: National record holder Hari Shankar Roy had confirmed his participation in the Senior Nationals. Roy had taken Indian athletes achievement in the high jump to the new height of 2.25m, classified as a world class performance in the All Star meet at Singapore last year. After battling with minor injuries, he is ready to reach new heights at Bangalore. He had jumped more than 40cm above his height which is a great accomplishment in the world of high jumping. His feat had not gone unnoticed, Hero Indian Academy had nominated him for the HISA Award 2005 scheduled to be held on July 8 at Bangalore. But for Hari Shankar Roy, it won't be an easy ride as he had to battle out with his arch rival Benadict Starly (2.10m) from Tamilnadu, trained by N. Annavi who had glorious record of winning men's high jump title for eight times at the Senior National during 1984-1993. Another young jumper Anil Chahal, season leader with 2.16m will surely make Roy and Starly sweat out in the most classic event of Athletics. In the absence of defending champion and national record holder Bobby Aloysius (pb: 1.91m) at the high jump pit, Local favourite Sahana Kumari (sb: 1.74m) is expected to dominate the women high jump. SAF games champion M. Sangeetha (1.81m) who is yet to click good height this season will attempt 1.80m plus at Bangalore. Pole Vault: AFI's decision to hold National camp for Pole Vault after a decade had started showing good results this season when V. S. Sureka and Chetna Solanki made national headlines with their rivalry and new heights in the women pole vaulting. Chetna Solanki had surpassed Sureka's national record of 3.70m with 3.80m in the Federation cup. Chetna is not only confident of defending title for the second year in a row but also to become first Indian women to reach 4m barrier in Pole Vault. If Chetna is confident of reaching 4m then her training mate Gajanan Upadhaye is confident of breaking 18 years old record of 5.10m of Vijaypal Singh. Gajanan had touched magical 5m height twice within fortnight in the last month. He will challenged by Jitender Kumar, winner of 4 titles during 1998-2002. Come and witness India's leading gravity fighters at Sree Kanteerava Stadium-Bangalore from July 3, 2005 onwards. From history: Most wins in National Inter-State Meet MEN: High jump: 8 - Nalluswamy Annavi (Tamil Nadu) 1984-93 3 - Omveer Singh (Rajasthan) 2001-03 (hat-trick) 3 - Bhim Singh 1966-71 3 - Baltej Singh 1976-80 3 - Suresh Babu 1972-78 Pole vault: 5 - Vijaypal Singh 1986-93 5 - M A Eldo 1989-97 4 - W A Naqvi (Bihar) 1966-69 (four-in-a-row) 4 - Sunder Singh Tanwar (Bih) 1982-85 (four-in-a-row) 4 - Jitender Kumar 1998-2002 Long jump: 4 - T C Yohannan (Bihar) 1972-78 4 - C R Shyam Kumar (Kerala) 1987-94 3 - Sanjay Kumar Rai (Bengal) 1998-2004 Triple jump: 6 - Labh Singh - First 3 for Punjab (1964-66) & Next 3 for Uttar Pradesh (1968-70) 4 - M P Ravikumar (Bihar) 1979-87 (in '87 he entered on AAFI banner!) WOMEN: High jump: 5 - Bobby Aloysius (1997-2004) 4 - Loretta Gomes (Tamil Nadu) 1966-69 (four-in-a-row) 4 - Usharani Mishra (Orissa) 1975-78 (four-in-a-row) 4 - Angela Lincy (Tamil Nadu) 1987-91 3 - P S Bindu (Kerala) 1992-94 (hat-trick) Pole vault: 3 - Karamjeet Kaur (Punjab) 1999-2001 (hat-trick since introduction in '99) Long jump: 5 - Mercy Kuttan - First 3 for Kerala (1980-82) & Next 2 for Bihar (1986-87) 4 - Irena Saldhana (Karnataka) 1970-73 (four-in-a-row) 3 - Angel Mary (Karnataka/Kerala) 1976-79 3 - Pramila Aiyappa (Karnataka) 1999-2003 Triple jump: 3 - Anju George (Tamil Nadu) 1997-2002 3 - Manisha Dey (West Bengal) 2000-2003 With inputs from Ram. Murali Krishnan Rahul Pawar |