AAFI whip a dud; foreign field a joke

NEW DELHI, OCT 12: The international flavour was nothing to speak about, neither was the motivation on the part of the Indians who deigne...

NEW DELHI, OCT 12: The international flavour was nothing to speak about, neither was the motivation on the part of the Indians who deigned to take part in the first AAFI-Salwan international athletic meet at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium this evening. The athletes could hardly be faulted for the unreasonable timing of the meet — much after the season everywhere has ended — and the AAFI whip too, did not seem to have worked.

It was most apparent when Gulab Chand, India’s best distance runner these days, arrived on the start line, led through for a lap and half and quietly dropped out of the race and sight at the far end near the 200m curve.

PT Usha was injured, but promised to be on track on Friday for the Raja Bhalendra meet, while Sanjay Kumar Rai, who has made everyone sit up with two leaps past eight metres in recent weeks, too cited injury and stayed away. A pleasant surprise, however, after an injury scare was sprinter Vinita Tripathi, a medallist at the SAF Games and the Asian Juniors in the pastfortnight. She won the 200m in a slow 24.33s. A similar surprise was P Ramachandran who arrived this morning and went on to win the 400m in 46.42s.

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Qualitatively, the day’s best performance probably came from KM Beenamol, who is slowly beginning to assert herself. The tiny Kerala athlete, who hit the spotlight after her success at the 1996 Asian juniors, had faded away but is now coming back into her own. She clocked 53.63s, a creditable time indeed for so late in the season and without anyone to push her.

The foreign participation was a bit of a joke. The Kenyans and Belarussians were struggling way behind mediocre Indian performers on a pleasant evening. The visitors won just two of the eight men’s events and none among women. Even second and third place were scarce. The best known visitor was Iranian Jafar Babakhani, who has been to India a few times before, but always under the shadow of the better known Hamid Sadjadi.

RESULTS: (all finals and India unless mentioned)

MEN:

100m: 1. AnilKumar 10.61s, 2. Youssef Dehmiri (Iran) 10.79s, 3. Abdul Ghafar (Iran) 10.82s; 200m: 1. Jata Shankar 21.62s, 2. Ajay Raj Singh 21.76s, 3. Youssef Dehmiri (Iran) 22.12s; 400m: 1. P Ramachandran 46.42s, 2. Jata Shankar 47.28s, 3. Lijo David 47.52s; 5,000m: 1. Jafar Babakhani (Iran) 14:06.17s, 2. N Gojen Singh 14:12.77s, 3. Satish Kumar 14:23.96s

Long jump: 1. Arnaud Casquette (Mauritius) 7.44m, 2. Satish 7.28m, 3. Jitbahal Oraon 7.14m; Shot put: 1. Shakti Singh 19.23m, 2. Bahadur Singh 18.90m, 3. Yogesh 18.03m; Discus: 1. Leonid Tcherevnko (Belarus) 55.88m, 2. Shakti Singh 55.09m, 3. Hridyanand 53.23m; Hammer: 1. Pramod Tiwari 66.97m, 2. Varinder Singh Punia 63.76m, 3. Rupinder Singh 60.94m

WOMEN:

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100m: 1. Saraswati Dey 11.99s, 2. Vijayalaxmi 12.18s, 3. Anuradha Biswal 12.22s; 200m: 1. Vinita Tripathi 24.33s, 2. MK Syamangthagam 24.57s, 3. Paramjeet Kaur 24.90s; 400m: 1. KM Beenamol 53.66s, 2. Jincy Phillip 54.89s, 3. Manjamma Kuriakose 55.55s; 1,500m: 1. Sunita Rani 4:17.72s, 2. Bulok Tatyana(Belarus) 4:21.72s, 3. Molly Biju 4:22.98s; Discus: 1. Neelam Singh 58.14m, 2. Harjeet Kaur 56.16m, 3. L Starovoitova (Belarus) 55.00m

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