Chennai, Aug 25: Perseverance backed by experience paid off. On a day when a National record was eclipsed and one meet record bettered, mothers ruled the roost in the fourth Domestic Athletic meet, conducted by the Tamil Nadu Amateur Athletic Association at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, on Monday.For Neelam T Singh, a mother of a five-and-a-half-year-old boy, rewriting her own National record in discus has become a habit. Within a short span of time, she has improved on her performance four times. At the National Games it was 53.78, followed by 54.56 at Birmingham (UK), then 55.72 in the second domestic meet in Delhi and her new distance today was 56.66.Neelam, employed with RCF, Kaparthula, had every reason to be proud of. Neelam's record breaking effort came in her third attempt. Second placed Harjit Kaur's effort was nearly four and half metres behind the winner. Sukanya finished third.PT Usha, also a mother of a four-year-old son, has slimmed down a lot. She proved she is still a force to reckon with in the short sprints. Though she won the 100m well ahead of her rivals she was unhappy over her timing of 11.90secs.She started off well and led right through but it was only after the first 50 metres that she accelerated to widen the gap. E B Shyla of Karnataka and Saraswathy Dev of West Bengal finished second and third respectively.Rosa Kutty, fresh from her European tour, had no difficulty in claiming the 1000m gold. Till the last bend, Madhuri Singh kept up a good pace, but the better experienced Rosa seemed to have reserved that extra energy for the homestretch and sprinted home comfortably.As expected Harbans Kaur, who holds the National record, threw the iron ball to a distance of 16.77, well below her best of 17.06 to pocket the gold.True to form, the present National record holder in 100m, Amit Khanna of Delhi sprinted his way to glory with a timing of 10.81.Kumar was in the lead right through, and just within the last 35 metres or so did Jairath Singh change gears to his pip his colleague at the post.ResultsMen: 100m: Amit Khanna (camp) 1, Thirugnanadurai (S Rly) 2, Manoj Kumar (camp) 3 - 10.81secs; 400m: C Ramachandran 1, Dinesh Rawat 2, M P Singh 3 - 48.04; Discus: Anil Kumar (Telco) 1, Hiradayanad (CISF) 2; Bahadur Singh (PUN) - 60.48mts; 1600m Jairath (Army) 1, Sathish Kumar (Army), M K Singh (Bih) 3 - 4:12.12 secs. Shotput: Bahadur Singh 1, Mukesh Singh 2, Hardev Singh 3 - 17.94 mtsWomen: 100m: PT Usha (Ker) 1, EB Shyla (Kar) 2, Saraswathi Dev (WB) 3 - 11.90secs; 400m: Jyotirmoyee Sikdar (camp) 1, P T Usha 2, S Vanaja (Kar) 3 - 53.60mts; Long jump: Anju Markose (Ker) 1, Lekha Thomas (Ker) 2, Bobby Alloysis (TN) 3 - 6.20mts; Shot Put: Harbans Kaur (camp) 1, Harpreet Kaur (camp) 2; Surindher Kaur (camp) 3 - 16.77mts; Discus: Neelam Singh (camp) 1, Harjit Kaur (camp) 2, Sugan Yadav 3 - 56.66mts (NR) (OR 55.72); 1000m: Rosa Kutty (Camp) 1, Madhuri A. Singh 2, C Latha (TN) 3 - 2: 53.2secs.
