Open meet a damp squib

Three three-day DDA-National Open Athletics Championships, which began at the Nehru Stadium here today, was supposed to be the last chance for some 8216;hopefuls8217; to sneak through the open doors and jump into the Asian Games bandwagon. But the first day of the meet proved to be otherwise 8212; a shut case 8212; at least for Paramjit Singh and the two 4x100m relay squads unless, of course, politics prevails.

Even otherwise, the meet proved to be a damp squib with the weather playing its part. However, a silver lining was provided by the women participants on an overcast day when a national record in pole vault and three meet records in 100m, 400m, 10,000m events were obliterated. But, unfortunately, none of them had any relevance to the ultimate aim of the competitors: booking a seat to join the jumbo squad.