calcutta, october 10: The strong Railways contingent maintained their dominance picking up eight of the 14 gold medals at stake on an uneventful second day of the 40th Open National Athletic Championship at the Salt Lake Stadium here on Tuesday.Saraswati Dey of Railways emerged the fastest woman of the meet as she secured the gold in the 100m event on a day which saw no meet records being re-written as most of the top athletes returned with below par performances.Dey finished first in the shorter sprint with a timing of 11.91 sec, well behind Rachita Mistry's meet record of 11.58 established in the Bhopal Open National in 1998.Thrower Shakti Singh, who put up a rather dismal performance in the Sydney Olympics, continued to disappoint as he was pushed to the second position in the men's discus throw with policeman Krishna Kumar Sharma claiming the gold with a throw of 54.54m.Shakti Singh, who had to be content with a silver medal in the shot put event on Monday, managed a throw of 53.60m well behind his own meet record of 57.70m.With eight more gold medals in their kitty on Tuesday, Railways have boosted their overall gold tally to 14 and were on course for retaining both the men's and women's team championships.Police have a total of six gold medals so far while Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) have picked up four gold after the first two days competitions.J Clifford of Karnataka secured the gold in the men's 200m clocking 21.55 sec while Raj Pal of Haryana had to be content with the silver medal with a timing of 21.79 sec.Railwayman Lijo David, who was expected to do much better in the event, finished a rather poor third with a timing of 21.82 sec.Bala Debi began the medal hunt for the Railways by pocketing the gold in the gruelling women's 10-km walk with a timing of 55:14.7 sec while Debi Dey added one more gold in their kitty by finishing first in the women's 100 M Hurdles clocking 14.09 sec.In the women's shot put event, Surinderjeet Kaur of Police won the gold medal by hurling the iron ball to a distance of 15.14m while Railway's N Latha took the silver with a throw of 15.04m.Reena Das did the Railways proud by claiming the coveted gold medal in the gruelling women's 10,000m run with a timing of 38:58.77 sec leaving her opponents well behind in what turned out to be a rather easy race for her.In the women's 800m event, policewoman Indrajit Kaur took the gold with a timing of 2:09.04 sec while Kuldip Kumar of Railways finished first in the men's 1500m event clocking 3:51.28 sec.The meet, however, has lost much of its glamour with several top Sydney-returned athletes like Paramjeet Singh, Rachita Mistry, Rosa Kutty, Bahadur Prasad, P Balakrishnan, Ajay Raj Singh and Anil Kumar opting out at the last minute.ResultsWomen10-km walk: Y Bala Debi (Rlys) 55:14.7 sec, Roni Bali (Rlys) 55:51.5s, Pramjit Kaur (Rlys) 56:38.7s; 100m hurdles: Debi Dey (Rlys) 14.09s, GG Pramila (Rlys) 14.20s, B Poonam (Kar) 14.40s; 10,000m: Reena Das (Rlys) 38:58.77s, Madhuri Gurnula (LIC) 39:01.84s, Pashotleima Devi (Manipur) 39:37.74s; Shot put: Surinderjeet Kaur (Police) 15.14m, N Latha (Rlys) 15.04m, Seema Antil (Police) 14.41m; Triple Jump: Manisha Dey (Rlys) 13.22m, Shilpa Sequeira (Kar) 12.50m; Kalpana Das (Rlys) 12.43m; 800m: Indrajit Kaur (Police) 2:09.04s, C Latha (TN) 2:09.30s; Romola Devi (Police) 2:09.67s; 100m: Saraswati Dey (Rlys) 11.91s, Vinita Tripathi (LIC) 12.06s, Mukti Saha (WB) 12.06s;Men: 200m: J Clifford (Kar) 21.55s, Raj Pal (Haryana) 21.79s, Lijo David (Rlys) 21.82s; Discus Throw: Krishna Kumar Sharma (Police) 54.54m, Shakti Singh (Rlys) 53.60m, Deo Kumar Roy (Bihar) 52.85m; 3000m steeple chase: Arun D'Souza (Rlys) 9:03.93s, Rajesh Kumar (Services) 9:05.45s, Sudhir Kumar (Services) 9:13.07s; Decathlon: Kulvinder Singh (Services) 6766 pts, Sibimon Augustin (Services) 6584 pts, Pradeep Alok (Railways) 6579 pts; High jump: KR Roshan (LIC) 2.13 metre, Arumugam Pillai (Rlys) 2.10, Ombir Singh (Del) 2.05; 4x100m relay: Railways 41.22s, Karnataka 42.29s, West Bengal 42.96 sec.
