Anju breaks record, twice

It may have been a failure for Anju Bobby George. But it was a success story for Indian athletics. Even as she held spotlight for a brief mo...

It may have been a failure for Anju Bobby George. But it was a success story for Indian athletics. Even as she held spotlight for a brief moment with an opening jump of 6.83m, the women8217;s 4215;400 relay team qualified for the final with a gallant performance of 3.26.89.

While Anju had become the first Indian to qualify for the final of a field event, for the relay quartet also it was a maiden entry to the Olympic final. 8216;8216;I am disappointed I have failed to come up to the expectations of the millions of people back home8217;8217;, Anju said in a choked voice after finishing at the sixth spot. In a series of competitions in the past one year Anju had been making foul in the opening attempt. But here in Athens both in the qualifying and in the final tonight she had an opening valid jump.

In fact her 6.83 was better than her own national mark of 6.74 which she had done twice. 8216;8216;I knew the competition was tough here and I went all out from the beginning. But then I felt uneasy and went down8217;8217;, she said.

After the opening 6.83 she did 6.75 and then it was a downward slide of 6.68 and 6.61 with two foul jumps.

8216;8216;No, I was not overawed by the occasion nor did a good opening jump make me tense,8217;8217; she said. But the Indian champion did look edgy after a foul on her third attempt. Perhaps in a desperate bid to stay in contention, she messed up on the run way and simply ran through the pit.

On a windy night, Anju said the breeze also had effect on her performance. 8216;8216;It starts me wheezing and maybe that8217;s why I did badly8217;8217;, she said.

Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia claimed the gold in 7.07 metres as the Russians clinched the next two spots also. Both Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova did 7.05 metres.

RELAY RALLY

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For the women8217;s 4215;100 relay team it was an outstanding performance. The quartet of Rajiwnder Kaur, K M Beenamol, Soman Chitra and Manjeet Kaur clocked 3:27.75 to enter the final. They emulated the feat in Los Angeles 1984 of P T Usha, Shiny Wilson, Vandana Shanbhag and Vandana Rao.

The best 16 teams in the world were given entry in the Olympics and India had made the grade in the Grand Prix meet in Colombo last year. There the team had clocked 3:27.35