Srabani bests Dutee for 200m gold

Tintu rewrites the women’s 800m meet mark; Jinson and Jithin provide a spark

Odisha’s Srabani Nanda (left) pipped Dutee Chand (right) and H.M. Jyothi to the women's 200m gold. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Dutee Chand could not execute her threat of qualifying for the Olympics, and was beaten to the 200 metres gold by the seasoned Srabani Nanda in the 20th Federation Cup athletics championships that concluded at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

Srabani clocked 23.39 seconds as she pipped Dutee by two hundredths of a second. In fact, it was a photo finish as the public display screen continued to show the replays for long, without any announcement of the results.

H.M. Jyothi won the bronze yet again, one hundredth of a second behind the 19-year-old Dutee, who perhaps lacked the energy at the finish. Interestingly, Jyothi had lost the silver in 100 metres by similar margin.

“In future, when we attempt qualification, I think we have to focus on one event. Dutee is young, and has a lot of scope to improve,” said coach N. Ramesh, who has been training her.

Class act

Without having to worry about meeting qualifying standards as she has already confirmed her ticket to Rio, Tintu Luka bettered the women’s 800 metres meet record with a time of 2:1.84. The earlier record had stood against the name of Jyotirmoyee Sikdar since July 1998. Tintu, watched by her coach P.T. Usha, was a class act in comparison to the rest of the pack, as she beat Gomathi Marimuthu by about five seconds.

Jinson Johnson (1:47.56) in 800m and Jithin Paul (49.94) in 400m hurdles came up with their personal best to provide a spark to the day’s proceedings. Coach Muhammed Kunhu, who trains them in the national squad, felt that they were capable of reaching the qualification mark of 1:46.00 and 49.40 respectively in due course of time.

It was disappointment in women’s 400m hurdles for Asian Games gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji as she was slow off the blocks (she later complained that she could not hear the call for the start even as the gun was fired in a hurry), and had to settle for the bronze behind Jauna Murmu and Ayana Thomas, with a time of 59.39s.

Mayookha out of danger

The Asian Indoor championship gold medallist Mayookha Johny was reportedly out of danger after having hurt her left foot while making her first attempt in women’s triple jump. She had failed to register a mark in the event. Sheena Nellicka of Kerala won the gold with a jump of 13.32m.

“There was no fracture, but we are waiting for the medical advice,” said coach Bedros Bedrosian, according to a release from the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

The results:

Men:

200m: 1. Dharambir Singh (Har) 21.02; 2. Sanjeet (Har) 21.32; 3. S. Vidyasagar (Navy) 21.33.

800m: 1. Jinson Johnson (Ker) 1:47.56; 2. Lalit Mathur (Har) 1:47.90; 3. Sajeesh Joseph (Ker) 1:47.6.

10,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan (TN) 29:57.44; 2. Nitendra Singh Rawat (UK) 29:59.52; 3. Yunus Mohammed (UP) 29:59.69.

400m hurdles: 1. Jithin Paul (Ker) 49.94 (NMR, old 49.98); 2. Durgesh Kumar (UP) 50.37; 3. Jasdeep Singh (Pun) 52.07.

High jump: 1. Jagdeep Singh (ONGC) 2.11; 2. Ritesh Kumar (UP) 2.11; 3. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Mah) 2.08.

Triple jump: 1. Renjith Maheswary (Ker) 16.47; 2. Arivu Selvam (Ser) 16.00; 3. Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 15.99.

Discus: 1. Kirpal Singh Baith (ONGC) 57.76; 2. Arjun (Har) 56.78; 3. Dharamraj Yadav (UP) 56.03.

Women:

200m: 1. Srabani Nanda (Odi) 23.39; 2. Dutee Chand (Odi) 23.41; 3. H.M. Jyothi (Canara) 23.42.

800m: 1. Tintu Luka (Rlys) 2:01.84 (NMR, old 2:02.28); 2. Gomathi Marimuthu (TN) 2:06.45; 3. Shipra Sarkar (WB) 2:06.95.

10,000m: 1. Swati Haridas Gadhawe (Mah) 32:53.73 (NMR, old 32:56.58); 2. Sanjeevani Jadhav (ONGC) 34:43.76; 3. Meenu (Del) 36:02.22.

400m hurdles: 1. Jauna Murmu (ONGC) 58.60; 2. Ayana Thomas (CRPF) 58.92; 3. Ashwini Akkunji (Kar) 59.39.

Triple jump: 1. Sheena Nellicka (Ker) 13.39; 2. Shilpa Chacko (Ker) 13.22; 3. MA Siva Anbarasi (TN) 12.52.

Pole vault: 1. Kirambir Kaur (Pun) 3.50; 2. KC Dua (Ker) 3.40; 3. Sinju Prakash (Ker) 3.30.

Shot put: 1. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (ONGC) 15.25; 2. Harkirat Kaur (Pun) 14.37; 3. Sonal Goyal (Del) 13.79.

Javelin: 1. Annu Rani (UP) 58.47 (NMR, old 58.00); 2. Poonam Rani (ONGC) 54.06; 3. Suman Devi (UP) 53.67.

Heptathlon: 1. Purnima Hembram (Odi) 5706; 2. Niksy Joseph (Ker) 5225; 3. RA Manjushree (CRPF) 4373.

Published - May 01, 2016 01:06 am IST