Mumbai – 15 January 2012

 Army lad Ram Singh Yadav joined the list of Indian athletes who have qualified for this year’s Olympic Games in London when he clocked an impressive 2 hrs 16 min 59 secs to finish twelfth in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon here on Sunday.   It was indeed a blessing in disguise for Yadav as he missed a chance to gain an entry in to the Indian Olympic team for Beijing four years ago by just four seconds.

Yadav was the eighth Indian athlete to achieve the Olympic standard.  The previous seven who did it last year are—Krishna Poonia (discus throw),  Mayookha Johny (triple jump) and Tintu Luka (800m) among women, Vikas Gowda (discus throw), Om Prakash Singh (shot put), Gurmeet Singh and Babubhai Panucha (both 20km walk) among men.  Of which both Krishna Poonia and Gurmeet Singh attained the “A” standard while others went past the “B” grade.

Ram Singh also attained the “B” grade in Mumbai, which is 2:18:00 while the “A” norm stands at 2:15:00.  His teammate Elam Singh however was just short of it when he crossed the finish-line at 2:18:27. 

For Olympics a maximum number of three athletes in an event with “A” standards or one athlete with “B” grade in an event is allowed to take part from a country.  In case of the 20 km race walking event, though both Gurmeet and Babubhai attained the qualification only one athlete is able to represent the nation.  In other words, Panucha also needs to achieve the “A” standard in order to make the voyage to London along with Gurmeet Singh.    Same is the case for Elam Singh and other Indian marathoners, including Ram Singh Yadav, if the country is intend to field more than one athlete in this event in the Olympic Games.   Olympic qualification for marathon and walking races are need to be achieved in certain pre-designated races around the world.   

Athletics Federation of India is making necessary efforts to send the athletes abroad to take part in such events so that more number of sportspersons can able to represent India at London.

India's last appearance in the Olympic Marathon race came in 1980 at Moscow.  The best Indian performance to date was achieved by Shivnath Singh when he finished a credible eleventh place at Montreal four years earlier.

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Haryana halted Kerala’s unbeaten run to crown overall champions

 Ranchi, Jharkhand – 4 November 2011

 Congratulation guys, you did better this time” was Kerala’s reaction when Haryana state emerged as overall champions in the 27th National Junior Athletics Championship which concluded here at Birsa Munda Stadium this evening. 

Kerala, the sportive southern state, was unbeaten since 1998 when Kochi hosted the junior nationals for the first time and had won the overall champion title for a record fourteen times in a row.   Newly crowned Haryana led the medal tally with 27 gold, 16 silver and 15 bronze medals followed by Kerala (23-23-20) and Tamil Nadu (15-12-21).  Haryana’s success mainly came through their boys who grabbed 18 gold medals while Kerala girls contributed 19 golds to their state.

As in the past three days, Friday’s action also started with a record note when UP boy Inderjeet Patel secured a distance double while posting a new meet mark of 14:25.61 to win the junior men 5000m.  His teammate Manoj Yadav improved another record when hurled the javelin to 70.61m. 

In the youth boys’ 3000m run Harish Koranga of Uttarakhand came very close to Inderjeet Patel’s meet mark when timed 8:28.96 for the gold.  Haryana lad Surender Singh tossed the 5 kg iron ball to a new distance of 18.67m in the morning’s shot put finals to send an early warning to everyone that his state is going to claim the trophy later today. 

Paschim Banga’s Asesh Chandra Roy improved 1 cm to Kerala jumper Jithin C. Thomas’s meet mark of 1.98m in boys u-16 high jump event, for another double to add his long jump victory from the opening day. 

Asian Youth Games champion Namita Kabat cheered the home-crowed with her win over 800m in the junior women category.  Maharashtrian Monika M. Athar won her second gold through a noteworthy 10:00.41 clocking in 3000m.  She took the 5K title during the first day of the meet. 

Kerala’s national cross-country champion M.D. Thara became victor in youth girls 3000m.   Delhi boy Ashwani Sharma delivered a sprint double when he crossed first the finishline in 200m this afternoon.  Earlier he pocketed the 100m gold in junior men.  The same was the case with Tamil Nadu sprinter B. Karthikeyan in u-16 group.  Among the girls, R. Varsha ofKarnataka was the last athlete to claim the second gold of the meet through her 200-400m combination.   

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Spearman Rajesh sets new mark as youth athletes continue to prevail

 Ranchi, Jharkhand – 3 November 2011

 Maharashtra’s Rajesh Kumar, who finished second in the recent inter-zonal championships at Bhopal, upgraded to gold status in late evening on Wednesday when he hurled the spear to a new distance of 72.25m in youth boys’ javelin throw which erased UP boy Manoj Yadav’s meet and national mark of 71.96m set last year from the record books.

 Just few minutes before the above mentioned phenomenal performance, another youth boy V. Praveen Muthukumaran garnered his second gold of the day through a 7.27m leap in long jump.  The athlete from Tamil Nadu had earlier won the 100m with a record 10.75 secs clocking on the second day’s competition in the ongoing 27th National Junior championships here.   Praveen was a silver medallist in long jump in last year’s edition of Junior nationals at Bangalore.

 The Thursday morning programme has started with yet another record show in the youth division when Haryana walker Kuldeep recorded an excellent 42:58.1 over the 10 km course to extend his state’s supremacy in this event.  Kuldeep had been the eighth athlete from Haryana to win the u-18 title in race walking. 

 Duregesh posts national junior mark

 Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Durgesh Kumar Pal had no match in his favourite 400m hurdles.  Moving in to junior men category for the first time Durgesh running over the barriers in perfect style to register a new national junior best of 50.86 secs.   Fresh from his victory in the Commonwealth Youth Games in Douglas this September, the Maharashtraboy revealed his ambition to make another podium finish next year at global stage in the World Junior Championships.  

 Among the budding athletes who made their first step in the nationals, Anilkumar Sahoo of Maharashtra caught everyone’s attention as he raised the bar in u-14 boys’ high jump to 1.85m, a national best in that age-group.  Bengal boy Tapas Roy also bettered the meet mark with a clearance of 1.80m for the silver.    TN jumper Arthi and Melva George fromKerala were tied for the top spot in the girls division. 

 Second successive title for Mahalakshmi

In girls under-16 discus throw M. Mahalakshmi had won the gold with her last round throw which measured to 35.65m from compatriot K. Subhashini, who had an early lead with 34.81m.   Incidentally Mahalakshmi was second in the last edition of the nationals behind commonwealth youth games bronze medallist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon.   Trained under former LIC thrower RM. Narayanan, the TN girl took her first-ever title at the national level competition through her victory in Bhopal inter-zonal championships this year.

Kerala athletes regained the junior women triple jump event after two years.  Shilpa Chacko and P.S. Savitha were 1-2 with their jumps over 12.78 and 12.41m respectively.  The 4x100m relay quartet of Arathy, Adheena, Savitha and Mareena retained the gold for their state clocking a modest 48.53s.  Kerala was unbeaten in this event since 2002 and today’s win marked their winning streak to eleven!

 In the medley relay for youth girls, Tamil Nadu team posted a new national mark in 2:13.87 while S.N. Mohammed Salahuddin took the u-18 triple jump honours as expected with a last round 15.09m.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Praveen led youth domination on second day

 Ranchi, Jharkhand – 2 November 2011

 Tamil Nadu sprinter V. Praveen Muthukumaran and Bihar’s international Sunanda Sarkar lived-up to expectations to win the marquee event of the day—100m—in youth boys and girls divisions respectively.  Praveen, who clocked an outstanding 10.59 secs to win the south zone meet at Hyderabad in mid August, ran like a spitfire to win the under-18 title in the national inter-zonal championship at Bhopal thereafter in a superb 10.75s.  Surprisingly he returned the same time (10.75s) again this evening for a new record in 27th National junior championships here to add another feather in his cap.  Kerala’s Jijin Vijayan also clocked a credible 10.80s for the silver while another TN athlete Augustine Yesudas finished third in 11s.   Tamil Nadu’s success story in this event began at Kottayam in 1967 when the u-18 division was first introduced.  Madras state’s Swaminathan become the first champion in 11.2 secs.  Several others followed the glory after him.   

 Sunanda, represented the nation in this year’s World Youth Championships at Lille (France), missed the 10-year-old meet mark of 12.10s held by Chitra K. Soman since 2001.  The Bihari girl however posted a personal best 12.14s for today’s victory.  Bengal’s Ruma Sarkar was a distant second in 12.31s.   Orissa girl Dutee Chand successfully defends her title in u-16 division with a modest 12.19s clocking.   

 As like yesterday, the second day’s proceedings begun with a meet record when Haryana lad  Ashish Rohilla walked 10 km in 43:40.7 for the junior men’s title.  The honour went to Pooja Jat of Maharashtra in junior women (54:27.4). 

 Kerala hurdler Pinto Mathew halted neighbouring Tamil Nadu’s monarchy in junior men’s 110m hurdles.  Pinto’s winning time of 14.12s was 0.20 faster than his TN rival J. Thiyagarajan.  In the youth girls 100m hurdles, favourite Meghana Shetty of Karnataka missed the crown by a whisker when Punjab’s Sumandeep Kaur pip her on the post 14.65 to 14.66s.

 Sinju Prakash (Kerala) defends u-18 pole vault after scaling a new height of 3.30m.    

 Time and again youth athletes delivered better performances at the Junior nationals in recent times.  The same was the case here as the marks delivered by youth athletes were amazingly in high order than their senior teammates. 

 On the field, Maria Jaison of Kerala took the girls u-14 long jump title in 5.18m which is however a no mean effort when compared to the national record 5.82m set by TN star Rochella Macfarlane last year.  Incidentally Haryana lace Kaushalya won the junior women long jump gold with a leap of 5.87m.  Haryana athletes continue to triumph with more golds todays.  Hammer thrower Jyoti went home with a junior women gold (45.92m) while her name-sake got another in u-16 girls’ discus throw (37.37m).

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Harshith sailed to a stunning height

 Ranchi, Jharkhand – 1 November 2011

 The 27th National Junior athletics championship begun here at Birsa Munda Stadium with a record as international Inderjeet Patel representingUttar Pradesh clocked an impressive 30:03.17 to win the Junior Men’s 10000m race.  Patel’s time shaved off the 15-year-old meet mark of Maharashtrian Bala Saheb Nikam by more than 20 secs.  Andhra Pradesh’s Surender Kumar pushed hard Inderjeet (17) until the last two laps and finished a credible second in 30:34.01. 

 But the focus shifted to the field when youth boys’ high jump commenced in the afternoon.   As expected the defending champion Shashidhar Harshith grab the attention of spectators and compatriots.   The lanky Karnataka jumper gave a pass to the initial three heights before making a ‘safety’ jump at 1.90m.  After skipping the next height (1.93), he had begun sailing over the crossbar in perfect manner right from 1.96 to an amazing 2.17m without any hitch.  Incidentally it was not only put in shade Tamil Nadu jumper Nikhil Chittarasu’s 2006 mark of 2.05m in a big margin, but also the National Youth Record of 2.13m held by Bengal boy Harishankar Roy since 2002.  

 Bihar’s Amarnath Ojha and Kerala athlete Sreenith Mohan have both cleared an identical height of 1.99m for silver and bronze medals respectively behind Harshith’s gold winning 2.17m. 

 Harshith, hails from India’s golden-town Kolar, was a first year Pre-University student in Bangalore M.E.S. College.  He finished eighth in the recent Open Nationals at Kolkata with a height of 2.10m.  Harshith could have comfortably won the gold there if he could have achieved what he did today in Ranchi.  Harshith is fast evolving on the Indian athletics highway and reminded us of Nallusamy Annavi (TN) in the eighties.  If groomed well, Harshith will bring more laurels to the country in the continental arena.  Hope the entire Karnataka team will celebrate his birthday on their return journey from Ranchi, four days from now!

 In the girls under-14 division, Anjana Thamke of Maharashtra bettered another meet and national mark in 600m with a time of 1:31.36.  Kerala runner Babita finished second in 1:37.71.   The champion state started its golden hunt through long jumper Athira Surendran (5.72m) and javelin thrower N.V. Sheena (40.71m).

 Maharashtra’s Monika Athare defends her title in junior women’s 5000m, while discus thrower Vikas did the same for Haryana in junior men’s category. 

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /      

Portland, USA – 17 October 2011

In less than 72 hours after she attained the “B” qualification norm to the 2012 Olympic Games here, Indian discus thrower Krishna Poonia delivered a stupendous performance of 62.25m that surpassed the “A” standard (62m) and proved her gold winning show in last year’s Commonwealth Games at New Delhi was not a fluke!

 Krishna registered 61.12m on Friday for her initial qualification.  But she went all out to breach the 62m mark in what is called the “Halloween Throws Meet”.  Today’s performance was better than her golden throw of 61.51m in CWG last year.

 Krishna was the 21st athlete in the world to achieve the “A” standard qualification for the Olympics since the commencement of the qualification period on May 1 this year.  Poonia’s show will encourage other Indian discus throwers, especially the other two CWG medallists Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil, to join her on the race for the Olympic berth since a maximum number of three athletes with A-standard from a nation will be allowed to compete in London.  The last date for attaining the eligibility is 8th July 2012.

 Virender Poonia, husband and coach of Krishna, thanked the Indian government and Athletics Federation of India for their continuous support and encouragement.  With today’s meet Krishna ended her campaign for the season and hence very happy that she achieved the best of her season on a winning note.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Portland, USA – 15 October 2011

 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia has become the latest athlete from India to qualify for next year’s Olympic Games at London. 

 Krishna, presently training in United States Throws Center at Concordia University (Oregon) since July this year under the guidance of former US Olympian MacWilkins, had won the discus throw event in the Fling Throws Meet here today with an excellent performance of 61.12m.

 The champion athlete showed tremendous improvement after recovering from an injury which she sustained after the Delhi games last year and today’s performance marked her season’s best.   Krishna was now one of the half a dozen Indian athletes who achieved Olympic qualification norms since the beginning of the qualification period this year. 

 “I thank Indian fans as a large number of Indian community living in this area have come and encouraged me that enable improvement in my performance level” Krishna revealed after the event and added that she missed her son Lakshya Raj Poonia due to her training at the United States for the past four months and eager to meet him when she return home in the first week of November.

 Another discus thrower Vikas Gowda, Shot putter Om Prakash, triple jumper Mayookha Johny, half-miler Tintu Luka and walkers Gurmeet Singh and Babubhai Panucha are the other athletes already attained the London qualification.

 With a large number of young and upcoming athletes shown promising performances in recent period, the list is expected to grow bigger in the days to come.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Kolkata – 11 September 2011

 Young Arpinder takes his third straight senior title in triple jump

 Last year’s Asian junior silver medallist Arpinder Singh completes a unique hat-trick in triple jump when he registered a personal best jump measuring 16.63m.  The 18-year-oldPunjab boy added open national crown to his National Games and Inter-State wins earlier this year.  Saurav Singh of Police and Bibu Mathew of Services took the silver and bronze medals by jumping to 16.22 and 16.06m respectively. 

 Another athlete to achieve this feat today was discus thrower Harwant Kaur representing ONGC.  Like Arpinder she also had her maiden title in the open nationals with a throw of 53.59m, an easy outing in the absence of Commonwealth Games gold medallist Krishna Poonia.

 Railway walker Deepmala Devi's winning streak in domestic circle was halted by Khushbir Kaur as she snatched the 20,000m race walking crown this morning in a time of 1 hour 34 minutes 38.18 secs.  Deepmala's last defeat also came in the Open Nationals two years ago at Bhopal.  Khushbir become the third woman represented the Punjab state to win the nationals behind Jasmin Kaur (2001 and 2003) and Amandeep Kaur (2005).

Haryana lad Manish and Bengal girl Asha Roy have took their maiden titles at the nationals while crowning the fastest man and woman of the meet.    Asha, a bronze medallist in long jump at the Youth Nationals three years ago, cloked 11.85 secs to win in a depleted field.  However Manish had to face a big challenge in two times champion B.G. Nagaraj of Railways.  Manish stopped the clock in 10.60s to win from Nagaraj, who shared an identical 10.67s with state-mate G.N. Bopanna, the third placer.  

Poovamma brought the women’s 400m gold in 53.87 secs to Karnataka, two decades after Ashwini Nachappa did this honour at the same venue!   In men's race Kunhu Muhammed defends his title, this time under services banner.  Last year he had represented his home-state Kerala.
Women 1500m race saw O.P. Jaisha took her third title in this event, after a gap of four years while teammate Sajeesh Joseph takes his second title in four years.
Steeplechaser Ramachandran got his maiden title at the nationals, also a first for Tamil Nadu in this event.
Vijay Kumar was the second combined events champ from Haryana as he replicated Jora Singh’s win in 2007 in decathlon with a tally of  7106 points.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Kolkata, 10 September 2011

 Mayookha ascertained her supremacy with a big leap in long jump

 Second only to Anju Bobby George’s nine year old meet mark of 6.74m, Asian champion Mayookha Johny proved her mettle by taking the long jump gold in a commendable 6.54m. Although her effort was once again fell short of the Olympic Games qualification norm (6.65m), the ONGC athlete lived up to everyone’s expectations even after a hectic schedule which includes an incredible World championship outing at Daegu, Korea, hardly ten days ago.   Her compatriot M.A. Prajusha settled with a silver (6.45) while the bronze medal went to Bihar’s Tanzila Khatoon (6.09).

 Earlier in the morning Asian junior champion Suresh Kumar graduated as a senior by taking his first major title and gave his employers ONGC the first gold of the meet in 10,000m clocking 30:18.16.  He avenged his defeat to Army lad Kheta Ram in the Inter-State meet held at Bangalore this June.  The services runner was 6.2 secs behind for the second place.  Railwayman Soji Mathew went home with a bronze in 30:43.39.

 As expected the women’s race a keen contest between arch-rivals Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut.   Asian Games gold medallist Preeja outshined Kavita by just four-hundredth-of-a-second to take her fourth title in the 25-lapper at nationals.  Preeja’s winning time was a modest 35:56.09 while Kavita registered 35:56.13.  Suriya Loganathan of Railways was a close third in 36:09.00. 

 Services discus thrower Vipender Singh regained his title after a gap of four years!  Earlier he had won the title in 2006 at Delhi with a mark of 52.84m.  It was only the fifth time ever a services athlete wins this event in the meet's history.  His winning mark today (50.52m) was lowest in 20 years.  Teammate Dharmendra threw 21 cm lesser for the silver, railway’s Sunil Kumar was third in 49.27m.

 Railway women Manju Bala and Saraswathy took the hammer and javelin throw titles respectively.  Saraswathy took her fourth straight title by setting out the spear to 49.05m, a feat achieved only by another Railway star Razia Sheikh during 1983-86.   Mukesh Kumari of Railways (46.29m) and Uttar Pradesh girl Anu Rani (46.05) completes the podium.

 Manju Bala took her maiden title in hammer throw in this championship with a mark of 56.71m.  Her teammate Anitha Abraham (53.26) and Gujarat’s Sarita (53.20) took the silver and bronze medals in that order.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Kolkata, 9 September 2011

 The 51st edition of Open National Athletics Championships will be held simultaneously at two venues in Kolkata—Salt Lake Stadium and SAI Sports Complex—in the next four days (10-13 September).   Apart from state units, the athletes from Railways, Services, Police and ONGC are expected to deliver good performances in the above meet as it will be an opportunity for the aspirants to attain qualifying norms for the London Olympics next year.

 Shot putter Om Prakash Singh, who recently improved his personal best to 20.07m while taking the gold in Szombathely, Hungary, along with Asian long jump champion Mayookha Johny, who already qualified for Olympic Games in triple jump will be the main attraction in the Open Nationals.

 Steeplechaser Sudha Singh, distance runners Kavita Raut and Preeja Sreedharan among women and half-miler Ghamanda Ram among men are the top contenders in their respective events.

 Defending champion Railways fields a strong 109-member contingent which is largest among the 22 teams taking part with around 900 athletes in the national athletics meet.     

 / AFI /

Durgesh Kumar Pal won GOLD in 400m hurdles

 Douglas, Isle of Man – 11 September 2011

 When he lined-up for the semi-final yesterday India’s Durgesh Kumar Pal had one thing in mind—win the race at any cost—as he carried the in memory the unforgettable loss at the World Youth Championships just two months ago in Villeneuve d’Ascq.   In the French town, popularly known as Lille, he misjudged his opponents in the semi-finals and finished third in a slow time which cost him dearly a chance to enter the final to win the event.  Having won the silver medal in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games at Singapore last year he was a pre-race favourite but returned home empty-handed.

 The lesson from France taught him since that he swear himself not to lose any race thereafter.  Drawn on lane five in the Sunday’s final, Durgesh ran a well calculated race and cleared the obstacles without any problem to romp home the coveted gold in 51.76 secs.  South Africa’s Constant Pretorius, fifth at WYC, finished a distant second in 53.05s while Kion Joseph of Barbados took the bronze in 53.52s.

 However the other Indian hopes were dashed in girls 200m semi-finals when Archana Suseentran (25.36s) and Sunanda Sarkar (25.20s) finished third and fourth in their respective heats and could not qualify for the final.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Douglas, Isle of Man – 11 September 2011

 Duregesh enter hurdles final, Archana in 200m semis

 Indian athletes continue to deliver good performances in the Commonwealth Youth Games here with Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Durgesh Kumar Pal led the field in 400m hurdles clocking 53.15 secs on Saturday in the National Sports Centre here to qualify for finals. 

 In yet another surprising feat, sprinter Archana Suseentran won her 200m heat with a time of 24.59s to enter the girls’ semi-finals on Sunday.

 However, discus thrower Sandeep found the competition very high and finished fifth after throwing the disc to 55.43m.  South Africa’s Gerhard de Beer won the gold in 67.44m while his teammate Jan-Louw Kotze took the bronze with a throw of 62.90m, missing the silver medal in just 6 cm to Scottish boy Nicholas Percy. 

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Douglas, Isle of Man – 10 September 2011

 Navjeet grabs Commonwealth Youth Games bronze medal in discus throw

 Indian discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon recorded her personal best 45.27m to win the bronze medal in 4th Commonwealth Youth Games which begun at Douglas in Isle of Manyesterday.

 In a Friday night action, the Punjab thrower overpowered her nearest rival Phoebe Dowson by 26 cm for the podium finish.  The gold went to Australian Taylah Sengul with a throw of 50.71m while Jersey girl Shandine Duquemin clinched the silver medal in 49.25m—both career best performances.

 Another Indian girl Sunanda Sarkar also made to finals and finished sixth with a time of 12.32 secs after clocking a credible 12.10s in the semi-final.  Englishwoman Sophie Papps excelled with 11.53s for the gold while Canadians Caroline Morin-Houde and Shaina Harrison had an identical 11.81 secs for the next two places.

 However Priyanka Mondal of India was disqualified in her 400m heats earlier.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Bhopal, 4 September 2011

 Haryana clinched overall honours, Praveen Muthukumarn sets youth best in 100m

 Sprinters from Tamil Nadu ruled the national scene in seventies and eighties.  History repeated again when Praveen Muthukumaran posted a marvellous Indian Youth best of 10.75 secs in boys’ u-18 division on the final day of National Inter-Zonal junior athletics championship here this evening.

 As expected athletes from Haryana state went away with overall and boys’ team honours while Tamil Nadu was top in the medal tally for girls.  TN jumper Siva Anbarasi won a double adding here triple jump gold to her long jump victory earlier.

 Jharkhand’s Asian Youth Games champion Namita Kabat took the junior women 800m title clocking 2:18.14.  Kerala  girl Aparna gave a good challenge to Namitra till the wire and finished second in a credible 2:18.50.

 Karnataka jumper Harshith was once again on the limelight when he sailed over 2.08m in high jump for youth boys.  His winning height was a well 5 cm above that of junior men’s winner Gowtham of Tamil Nadu in this event. Harshith already started competing in senior competitions and will reach higher places if groomed well.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Bhopal, 3 September 2011 

Coincidence never occurred often.  They are rare and god-sent!

 Yesterday in Daegu, American long jumper Dwight Phillips proudly displayed his bib number “1111” to mention his fourth time victory in the World championships.   Today when Phillips about to climb on the podium another jumper was standing on the runway several thousand kilometres away in Bhopal’s T.T. stadium.  Like Phillips he had a mission to accomplish and a point to prove.

 Salahuddin, trained by his father and former SAF Games medallist Mohammed Nizamuddin, was already an international at 17 years!  He has represented the nation in the Asian continental qualifier for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games at Singapore last year following his maiden win in triple jump at the National Youth Championships in Coimbatore. However he had disappointing second place in this year’s Youth Nationals at Ranchi, when losing the crown to Haryana’s Sandeep after jumping 15.24m.  Sandeep set a meet record in Ranchi by leapt 15.33m and donned the national colours when took part in the World Youth Championships at Lille, France, where he could manage only 14.14m.

 However the day belongs to Salahuddin as he made a remarkable series of jumps taking his strides on the rain-soaked runway and registered his personal best 15.25m for the gold wearing an auspicious bib number “786”.  

Struggling to find his rhythm Sandeep finished a distance eighth with a surprising 12.63m.  But another Haryana athlete Vikas took the silver in 14.71m.  “I expect Sala to do 15.50 or over, but rain played a spoilsport” revealed Nizamuddin after the event.   His mark is notable as the under-20 winner R. Rajasekhar, also from Tamil Nadu, could manage only 14.90 for the gold!

 Another youth athlete to catch the eye was Rajendra Bind from Uttar Pradesh.   A fine steeplechaser,

Bind was an easy winner in 3,000m run in the absence of his teammate and national record holder Indrajeet Patel in 8:42.94. 

 Karnataka’s Deeksha missed the meet mark in girls under-14 long jump by just 1 cm when achieved the winning leap of 5.16m.

Bhopal, 2 September 2011 

 The sporting state of Haryana begin its dominance right from the beginning when Vikas Malik ran away with the 10,000m gold in 32:38.68 on the opening day of 23rd National junior inter-zone athletics championship here in T.T. Stadium.   The 17-year-old Vikas outshined his senior compatriots to achieve this feat in boys’ under-20 division.

 Few hours later, Sumit Malik surprised everyone when he clocked a new national record of 47.76 secs to win the 400m in youth boys (under-18) division.  Teammate Sachin Kumar collected the silver medal in 48.42s.  The girls’ u-18 title also went to another Hariyani as Sarita finished first in 57.21s.

 New meet marks were set by u-16 boy Akash Singh of Haryana in 400m (50.10s) and Tamil Nadu youth Praveen Muthukumaran in long jump (7.25m).

 The youth boys’ medley relay also witnessed a new meet record as Haryana quartet timed 1:57.84 in their continued dominance on the national scene

 Other notable winners include Tamil Nadu’s Mahalakshmi in discus throw (35.21m) and Rakesh Sharma of Maharashtra in 1,000m (2:34.24) in the under-16 divisions for girls and boys respectively.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Bhopal – 31 August 2011

 The 23rd National Inter-Zonal Junior Athletics Championships will be conducted at Tatya Tope Stadium, Bhopal, from September 2 to 4, 2011.

 Nearly 470 boys and just over 400 girls from all over the country are taking part in the three day meet featuring 126 events in eight age-groups (four each for boys and girls). 

 The meet is growing bigger and popular when compared to the inaugural edition held at New Delhi in December 1989 in which only 65 events contested in four age-groups, i.e., senior and junior divisions for boys and girls.  North Zone dominated in the boys division while the East ruled among the girls. 

 The top-two athletes in individual events, along with the winning teams in relay races, from the competitions held in four zones will vie for top honours in Bhopal.  This year’s zonal competitions begun with East Zone meet in Kolkata on August 1, followed by North in Lucknow and West in Pune before the South Zone meet concluded at Hyderabad three weeks later.    

 Although representing the Zones, team honours go to leading states in the recent editions of the above championships.

For more details click here

 / AFI /