Dutee Chand could not execute her intention 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.
In a mutual change of positions in comparison to the 100 metres, Srabani clocked 23.39 seconds as she defeated Dutee by two hundredth 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.
Both Dutee (23.34) and Srabani (23.36) had given a hint of possibly going under the Olympic qualification mark of 23.24 with their dominant performance in the heats on Friday. Dutee had clocked a national record of 11.33 seconds in winning the 100 metres on the opening day of the three day meet.
Luka betters record
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 minutes 1.84 seconds.
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 800 metres and Jithin Paul (49.94) in 400-metre hurdles came up with their personal best to provide a spark to the day’s proceedings, and 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 400-metre 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 59.39 seconds.
Equally, there was disappointment for national record holder Mayookha Johny in women’s triple jump, as she failed to register a mark, even as Sheena Nellicka of Kerala won the gold with a jump of 13.32 metres.
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.
“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. SrabaniNanda (Odi) 23.39; 2. Dutee Chand (Odi) 23.41; 3. H. M. Jyothi (Canara) 23.42.
800m: 1. Tintu Lukka (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.
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