Anil sets the pace at circuit meet, equals National mark

On the other hand, Anil Kumar, who is aiming to clock 10.1 seconds at the Asiad to be held at Pusan in September, was happy to be in the limelight. He said he was under pressure as he expected tough competition from Amit Saha of Bengal. “Amit had been performing well in the camps and unfortunately I didn’t have much time to train due to an injury. But I am surprised with my timing here,” said the National champion. In fact, the 100 metres race got off after two false starts but Anil was quick to burst into the lead after the 60 metres mark. “I went flat out in the first half but once I saw that I had the race in my pocket I slowed down a bit,” Anil added.

One good sign from the performance in this meet was that there were few signs of rustiness among athletes considering that this was just the start-up to the season and most of them were competing in a National meet after a long gap. There are positive signs to read in K Beenamol’s 52.19 seconds in the women’s 400 metres, which came close to the National record (51.21) and Neelam Jaswant Singh’s throw of 59.10 is also commendable (National record 63.02).

In the men’s 400m, Haryana’s Bhupinder Singh created an upset when he pipped fancied Manoj Lal of the Services and Tamil Nadu’s P Ramachandran. Bhupinder clocked 46.11 seconds to win the gold.

RESULTS

Men: 100M; Anil Kumar (SSCB) 10.33s, Piyush Kumar (Dli) 10.55, Amit Saha (Ben)10.55. 400M: Bhupinder Singh (Har) 46.11s, Manoj Lal (Ker) 46.23, P Ramachandran (TN) 46.51. 800 m: KM Binu (Ker) 1:49.79, H Patel (MP) 1:50.76, Tej Karan (MP) 1:50.76. 5000 m: Sivananda (Rly) 14:35.67, N Gojen Singh (Pol) 14:37.50, Jaganath Lakade (Ser) 14:46.97.