Champ Bites Dust

Hurdling gold medalist Abraham blames poor form on lack of practice after Asiad.

In a recurring theme at the 34th National Games in Ranchi,star athletes who have brought home glory in recent international competitions such as the CWG and the Asiad are struggling to stay competitive. The big names were expected to have it easy but have been forced to deal with protests from their bodies,still unused to returning to the competitive mode after weeks without serious competition. On Sunday the tale was no different as – Joseph Abraham,the new poster-boy of Indian athletics,who won gold in the 400m hurdles in Guangzhou failed to come up with strong performance in the same event at the National Games. Abraham had to settle for silver,the gold going to Kuldev Singh of Punjab,an ONGC employee and Abrahams colleague at the NIS,Patiala. In fact,the troika that finished on the podium – satinder Singh Bajwa finishing third – are all training partners at the NIS.

I am not disappointed,I only participated in the inter-railways meet last week and nothing else since the Asian Games. There are no injuries or anything but the body is not in peak form, Joseph said after the event. He added that if the race had been scheduled even a day earlier,he would not have managed to run at all. Suresh sirs death has affected everyone. If this race was run yesterday,I would not have performed at all. The mind has still not accepted the fact,but at least I was able to run today, he said.

The race started off on expected terms. Joseph was the fastest off the blocks,and led until the half-way mark. By the time the runners completed the last bend and entered the home straight,Kuldev and Satinder were alongside him. A final burst of strength in the last few meters pushed Kuldev ahead,with a timing of 50.31. It was a photo-finish between me and Satinder (they finished with timings of 50.38 and 50.39 respectively). We all train together,under the same coach. So its ok, Joseph said. On his part,Kuldev was happy after registering his best timing,one though that is still some distance from the national best. And for Satinder,the fact that he ran Joseph close was good enough. He is the ultimate. I didnt expect this either,so I am perfectly happy, he said. His day was complete when he managed to get himself clicked with MS Dhoni,who also handed over the medals.

With the World Championship qualifying timing being 49.80,and that for Olympics being 49.50 both being something he has managed before Joseph is now setting his sights higher. For him,the results go beyond those clocked on the electronic timer. The difference in timings is very less. I ran 50.3 today with very little practice,as did two others. There are 4-5 guys in the 50-50.5 seconds bracket. The standard of 400m hurdles has gone up greatly in the country and there are no easy competitions anymore. And thats a very good thing, he said.

Dipa wins fifth gold
Tripuras Dipa Karmakar sparkled in the gymnastics arena clinching four gold medals today to take her haul to five,the highest by any gymnast in the 34th National Games here.

After taking the all round individual title on Saturday,Karmakar clinched the girls table vault,uneven bars,floor exercises and balanced beam during the day to emerge top in the individual medal list followed by Maharashtras Aksheta Shate who took four gold medals in the Rhythmic gymnasitics on Thursday.

This is the first time that I have participated in National Games,and am very happy to have won five gold medals. The credit goes to my father and coach for grooming me as a gymnast, said Dipa after winning her fifth gold medal.

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Commonwealth silver and Asian Games bronze medallist Ashish Kumar won the gold in the ring while Jharkhands Partho Mandal finished first in the pommel horse to give Jharkhand its lone medal in the gymnastic competitions. This was Kumars second gold medal after he won the all round individual gold on Saturday.

SSCBs Pawan Bhambore picked the gold medal in floor exercises while fellow teammate Zia-ur-Rahman took the gold in the table vault.

Uttar Pradeshs Iqrar Hassan and SSCBs Raja Roy won gold medals in horizontal bar and parallel bars respectively. A total of ten out of twenty gold medals,in both men and women,were decided on the last day of the last three-day competition.

Jharkhand archers upbeat
Jharkhand archers are raring to go as their event kicks off with the Indian round at JRD Tata sports complex here on Monday. The hosts team comprises of CWG gold medalist Deepika Kumari,Jayant Talukdar in recurve section,internationals Jhanu Hansda,Namita Yadav and Manjudha Soy and they are all in good nick and likely to grab medals in compound section.

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Around 270 archers from across the country taking part in the National Games took part in the official practice at the complex on Sunday.

Dhoni keeps his date with Ranchi
The National Games got an unexpected visitor in the Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday. A day after he led the Indian team to a resounding win over Bangladesh at Mirpur in World Cup opener,Dhoni was playing the fan at the multi-discipline sporting event that his home town was hosting.

After disembarking from his Kolkata-Ranchi chartered flight,Dhoni reached the Birsa Munda football stadium where hosts Jharkhand was matching its wits against a strong Goa side. But Dhoni’s presence reduced the game to a sideshow as all eyes moved from the footballers on the field to the cricketer in the stand.

The word soon spread about the main sports complex,where the official ‘footfall figure’ crossed 5 lakh on Sunday. Dhoni later moved to the track and field arena to meet the winner of the day’s showpiece event — the 400m hurdles.

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He chatted with the Asian Games gold medalist Joseph Abraham,Kuldev Singh and Satinder Singh Bajwa away from the public gaze inside the stadium. When asked about his National Games experience he said,”The infrastructure is brilliant and the feedback I got from athletes was absolutely impressive. I wanted to be there for the opening ceremony.” On the inevitable “Who will win World Cup?” question he said,”It’s still a long way off,let’s see.”

After presenting medals,signing autographs and obliging the photographers,Dhoni headed for the exit.