National Inter-University C’ships: Elakkiya Dasan and N. S. Simi break meet records

Mangalore University’s Elakkiya Dasan and Mahatma Gandhi University’s N. S. Simi clinched the 100m titles in the men’s and women’s categories, respectively.

Mangalore's Elakkiya Dasan (No. 2687) broke the meet record on the way to the men's 100m title. Photo: Sojan Philip

This was his university year and Mangalore’s Elakkiya Dasan wanted to finish with a flourish. The Tamil Nadu sprinter did not disappoint as he broke the meet record while retaining his 100m title at the 79th National inter-university athletics championships held at the Swaraj Stadium here on Sunday evening.

While Elakkiya’s victory and record were on expected lines, many had expected the race for the woman’s title to be a thriller till the tape. But with her big challenger — Bharathidasan’s S. Dhanalakshmi — fading away after the 80m mark, Mahatma Gandhi’s N. S. Simi stayed steady and smashed the meet record on the way to her maiden 100m title at the national level.

Nice recovery

“My start was not good and I thought that the race would slip from my grasp,” said Simi, who had broken Zenia Ayrton’s varsities national record in the semifinal (11.57s) before improving it to 11.56 in the final. “But I recovered nicely and finished well.”

Calicut's Angel Devasia broke her own women's high jump meet record. Photo: Sojan Philip

 

Meanwhile, Angel Devasia, Kerala’s flying queen, bettered her own year-old meet record as she soared over 1.83m for the women’s high jump title. After competing under the Mahatma Gandhi and Mangalore banner in the last two years, Angel was jumping for Calicut University this time and she did not disappoint though Sunday’s height equalled her personal best.

Unexpected

Anticipating protests over her eligibility to compete here, Angel had arrived with a favourable court order. There has been talk that she had crossed the maximum number of years an athlete could take part in the varsities meet so Angel did not want to take any chances. “That had been troubling me but I also had some pain in my leg, so I did not expect to break the record,” said Angel from Irinjalakuda’s Christ College.

In the women’s 800m, Calicut’s Abitha Mary Manuel, P. T. Usha’s trainee, overcame a strong last-lap challenge from Mangalore’s Therese Joseph, to clinch her first National university title.

Therese and her Mangalore team-mate Shalu Choudhary appeared to lay a ‘box trap’ for Abitha but she found a way out through the outer lane and raced to victory.

• Men
• 100m: 1. Elakkiya Dasan (Mangalore) 10.41s MR, OR 10.49, 2. Prajwal Mandanna (Mangalore) 10.58, 3. Muhammed Ajmal (MGU, Ktm) 10.64.
• 800m: 1. M. Raghuram (Madras) 1:50.41s, 2. T.H. Devaiah (Bangalore) 1:50.71, 3. Gurman Singh (Punjabi) 1:50.85.
• 400m hurdles: 1. Manjeet (GJU, Hisar) 51.72s, 2. Surender (Singhania) 52.08, 3. Gautam Gupta (MGKV, Varanasi) 52.90.
• Shot put: 1. Prabhakiran Pal Singh (Punjabi) 17.57m, 2. Karanveer Singh (Punjabi) 17.33, 3. Paramjeet Singh (Panjab) 17.28.

• Women
• 100m: 1. N.S. Simi (MGU, Ktm) 11.56s MR, OR 11.60, 2. S. Dhanalakshmi (Bharathidasan, Trcy) 11.69, 3. V. Revathi (MDU, Madurai) 11.84.
• 800m: 1. Abitha Mary Manuel (Calicut) 2:07.37s, 2. Therese Joseph (Mangalore) 2:08.47, 3. Harmilan Bains (Punjabi) 2:08.84.
• 400m hurdles: 1. R. Vithya (Bharathiar) 59.70s, 2. V.K. Salini (MGU, Ktm) 1:00.06, 3. Nanhi (MDU, Rohtak) 1:00.47.
• Long jump: 1. S. Harshini (Madras) 6.15m, 2. Priyanka Kerketa (Ranchi) 6.10, 3. Renu (Panjab) 6.09.
• High jump: 1. Angel P. Devasia (Calicut) 1.83m MR, OR own 1.82, 2. Abhinaya Shetty (Mangalore) 1.77, 3. S.B. Supriya (Mangalore) 1.77.
• Discus throw: 1. Arpandeep Kaur (GNDU) 49.87m, 2. Seema (Ch. Bansi Lal) 47.34, 3. M. Karunya (Madras) 46.48.