Shakti Singh loses title and record, Usha wins 200m in style

GANDHINAGAR, DEC 12: Star-studded Indian Railways finished the final day's proceedings in a blaze of glory, claiming the men's and women's ...

GANDHINAGAR, DEC 12: Star-studded Indian Railways finished the final day’s proceedings in a blaze of glory, claiming the men’s and women’s team championships as well as the general championship trophies as the curtain came down on the three-day 37th Open National Athletic Championships here today.

The day’s proceedings were enlivened by two meet records. Rosa Kutty of Indian Railways, who was in the limelight on all the three days, won the 800m in 2.01.06 seconds to erase the old record of 2.04.06 seconds set by Shiny Wilson of FCI in 1986.

Rosa strode with supreme confidence and her teammate Jyotirmoyee Sikdar wasleft far behind in second place in 2.06.82 seconds. Vanaja Somaya of Karnataka took the bronze in 2.12.01 seconds.

The second record came in discus from Anil Kumar of Heavy Engineering Sports Board, who pushed back favourite Shakti Singh. Anil won the gold with 57.74 metres bettering the old record of 57.70 metres set by Shakti Singh of Police in 1989. Shakti’s throw measured 56.50 metres for silver and Ajit was third with 55.64.

Sprint Queen PT Usha showed glimpses of class that once had the whole of Asia in awe in the 200 mtrs for women. She was just too good as she won in 23.44s while Saraswati Dey of Railways took the silver and G Vasanthi of LIC secured the bronze.

The women’s and men’s 5000m events were won by Railway athletes. In the women’s section, Sunita Rani striding smoothly and maintaining a brisk pace was leading the pack and ended up winning the gold followed by her teammate MA Molly. The bronze went to Vijaya Sonwane of Maharashtra who had earlier won a gold in the gruelling 10,000m.

In the men’s section it was international Bahadur Prasad all the way and closely following him was Gulab Chand his teammate who had won the gold in 10,000m. Harish Tiwari of LIC was third.

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Lekha Thomas of LIC completed a double winning the women’s long jump defeating Jaicy Thomas of Railways. Lekha leapt to 6.15 mtrs while Jaicy achieved 5.85m.

Another double was achieved when the men’s 200 mtrs was claimed by Anil Kumar of Servcies while Kishan of LIC was second and Jata Shankar of Police was third. Anil had earlier won the 100m.

Team Championships: Men: 1. Railways 154 points. 2. Services 96, 3. Police 85.

Women: 1. Railways 149 points. 2. Police 49. Best male athlete: Anil Kumar (HESB).

Best female athlete: Rosa Kutty (Railways).