Manjula, Reena better records

Kochi, Jan 27: Karnataka's Manjula Laxmaih (under-16) stole the limelight on the opening day of the 13th Junior National Athletic meet, when...

Kochi, Jan 27: Karnataka’s Manjula Laxmaih (under-16) stole the limelight on the opening day of the 13th Junior National Athletic meet, when she eclipsed the junior national mark in the 2000 metres at the Maharaja’s College grounds here today.

Manjula, a trainee of coach Purushottam Rai, won the newly-introduced event, clocking 6: 44.60m, ahead of her team-mate B L Bharathi (6.48.90), who also bettered the existing mark of 6: 49.84 which was set by Manipur’s Thabaton Devi, at the Inter-Zonal meet in Calcutta three months ago. The Manipur athlete came third today in the five-lap race which was held early in the morning.

In the girls’ (under-18) triple jump, Kerala’s Reena Thomas, coached by Olympian Sureshbabu at the SAI Centre, Thrissur, broke Kalpana Das’ mark of 11.91 m, with a leap of 12.15m. Kalpana came second, almost half-a-metre behind the winner.

Results: Boys: High jump: 1 N Anilkumar (Ker, 7.08 m), 2 Rafiqul Islam (WB), 3 Anilkumar Dubey (UP); Pole vault: 1 Gajender Singh (Del, 4.00m),2 Gerald (TN), 3 Sunishkumar (Ker); 10,000m: 1 Joykumar Singh (Manipur, 32.42.19), 2 Ganapati Bhusnur (Mah), 3 Sanjay (Haryana). U-18: Hammer throw: 1 Sombir Singh (Har, 48.76m ), 2 Deepak Kumar (UP), 3 Sumit Sharma (Del); U-16: 2000m: 1Basha Sab (Kar, 05:50.30), 2 Birendra Singh (Orissa), 3 Govinda Gupta (UP).

Girls: U-16: 2000m: 1 L Manjula (Kar, 06: 44.60 — new national junior record), 2 B L Bharathi (Kar), 3 S Thabaton Devi (Man); U-18: Triple jump: 1 Reena Thomas (Ker, 12.15 NMR), 2 Kalpana Das (WB), 3 Shilpa Sequeria (Kar) (Old record: Kalpana Das, WB, 1996, 11.91); U-20: Javelin throw: 1 K K Seethamma (Kar, 36.80m), 2 Chandini (MP), 3 Tia Das (WB)