A shot in the arm

MUMBAI, Oct 22: His size will surely scare away muggers. At six feet, three inches and 125 kgs, Shakti Singh, with his massive presence, ...

MUMBAI, Oct 22: His size will surely scare away muggers. At six feet, three inches and 125 kgs, Shakti Singh, with his massive presence, has stamped his authority in the throwing events in the country.

National record holder in both the discus and shot put, Shakti has, of late, been concentrating only on the latter. And by throwing 30 centimetres more than his own national record set in 1995, Shakti has almost assured himself of a place in the Indian team for the Bangkok Asian Games.

His effort today was 19.38 metres, but in relative measure, it was worth more 8212; a bonus of Rs 15,000 to the Rs 5,000 he got for winning the event.

Shakti started with discus and shot put when he was 25 and seven years later, achieved his best result when he set national record in both the events within a span of one hour. He threw 58.72 metres for the discus gold and 18.77 metres in shot put event in 1994, at a domestic meet at Mandia, Karnataka.

Early this year, Shakti had to undergo an orthoscopic operation on his leftknee and decided to give up discus. He uses the same rotation technique in both the events. With age catching up, Shakti feels it would be better to concentrate on shot put, at least till the Asian Games.

Shakti, who works with Northern Railway and is based in Delhi, sounded confident after today8217;s performance. 8220;I am sure of doing better. My aim is to throw 20 metres before or during the Asian Games,8221; he said.

His reasoning was that the Asian Games record stands at 19.26 metres and he had thrown better than that today.

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Shakti, who set his first national record in 1989 in Madras in the discus event, has not won an Asian Games medal so far. He was pushed to fourth in the previous Games. 8220;I was leading the field till the sixth and final round. But as is the case in throwing events, three other athletes got ahead of me and I lost a medal by 32 cms,8221; he said.

The 36-year-old Shakti, who has won three silver and a bronze in the Asian Track and Field meet, plans to continue for some more years. 8220;Thegold medal winner in women8217;s shot put in the Hiroshima Asian Games was a 40-year-old. If she can do that, why can8217;t I,8221; he questions.