Kerala crowned overall champions in 47th National Inter-state Sr. Athletics

Hamza & Jaisha of Kerala adjudged Best Athletes

By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net

---

Support TwoCircles

---

Bhopal: It was Kerala all the way. With Kerala being crowned overall champions middle-distance runners C. Hamza and O. P. Jaisha, both also from Kerala, with 1101 points and 1082 points were adjudged the best male and female athletes respectively of the 47th National Inter-state Senior Athletics Championship 2007 which concluded here on Thursday at the Tatya Tope stadium in Bhopal.

Kerala finished overall champions of the competition and were on top of the Medals tally bagging total 29 medals while Jharkhand remained in second position securing 24 medals and Haryana secured third position bagging 14 medals.

While the team championship in the Men’s section was won by Jharkhand with Kerala remaining runners-up. In the Women’s category Kerala girls were declared champions and Jharkhand runners-up.

Series of upsets continued on the last day where the Asian championship silver medallist Preeja Sreedharan of Kerala got beaten by Kavita Raut of Maharashtra who also set New Championship record in 10,000 metres final with 34:23:80sec.

In the men’s 10,000 metres Uttarkhand’s Surender Singh set second another championship record with a timing of 29:06.17sec. eclipsing Madan Singh 14-year-old record. This was his second gold medal of the championship.

In the men’s high jump National record-holder Hari Shankar Roy attempted to rewrite his own mark set in Singapore in 2004, but settled for a new meet record. Roy first cleared 2.14 metres and then broke his own meet record of 2.14 set in 2004 when he went over 2.22 metres. He then charged his National record of 2.25, but failed to clear the height in his three attempts.

In the long jump event the athletes of Kerala won all the three medals. MA Prajusa won gold, Reshmi Bose silver while Mayokha Jhony bronze medal.

Vinod Kumar Chahan (Guj) won silver clearing a height of 2.14 metres while B. Elangumaran (TN) took bronze when he cleared a height of 2.11 metres.

For hosts Madhya Pradesh, who finished 12th in the Medals tally, the only solace was the performance of Omprakash who won his maiden gold medal 3000 metre men’s Steeplechase and held the state’s flag high. Omprakash completed the race in 8:58:43 sec. and set a new record.

Bhopal Mayor Sunil Sood was the chief guest and Regional Manager, LIC M.R. Balakrishnan was the special guest at the closing ceremony of the championship.

President of MP Amateur Athletic Association, NS Parmar and secretary Mumtaz Khan, who was the Organising Secretary, expressed his satisfaction over the successful conduct of the four-day championship.

The results of the last day are as follows:-:

Men: 200m: 1. B. G. Nagraj (Jhar) 21.51s, 2. S. Arunjith (Ker) 21.53, 3. Ajay Kumar (Har) 21.69. 10,000m: 1. Surender Singh (Utr) 29:06.17 NMR (old 29:26.00), 2. Kashinath Aswale (Jhar) 29:42.23, 3. Sandeep Batham (Del) 30:08.04. 400m hurdles: 1. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 51.03s, 2. Patlavath Shankar (AP) 51.47, 3. Shejil Verghese (Ker) 51.91. High jump: 1. Hari Shankar Roy (Jhar) 2.22m NMR (old 2.18), 2. Vinod Kumar Chahan (Guj) 2.14, 3. B. Elangumaran (TN) 2.11. Discus: 1. Simarjit Singh (Pun) 49.60m, 2. Amardeep Singh (Pun) 49.35, 3. Rambir (Jhar) 48.94. 4x100m relay:1. Tamil Nadu 41.70s, 2. Jharkhand 41.71, 3. Kerala 41.78. 4x400m relay: 1. Chhattisgarh 3:15.98, 2. Uttar Pradesh 3:16.12, 3. Tamil Nadu 3:16.38. Decathlon: 1. P. J. Vinod (Ker) 6833 pts, 2. Bhupendra Singh (Jhar) 6618, 3. Vinoth Kumar (Del) 6241.

Women: 200m: 1. K. Kasthuri (TN) 25.10s, 2. Ranjita Roy (Ben) 25.11, 3. B. Bindhu (Ker) 25.39. 10,000m: 1. Kavita Raut (Mah) 34:23.80 NMR (old 34:30.20), 2. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 34:24.57, 3. Preethi Rao (Jhar) 37:16.10. 3000m steeplechase: 1. Kiran Tiwari (Utr) 11:36.68, 2. Geeta Rani (Del) 11:40.47. 400m hurdles: 1. Pooja Jhakhar (Del) 1:01.11, 2. Sutapa Das (Ben) 1:01.97, 3. Shalin Joseph (Ker) 1:02.17. Long jump: 1. M. A. Prajusha (Ker) 6.22m, 2. Resmi Bose (Ker) 6.18, 3. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 6.14. Shot put: 1. Saroj Sihag (Har) 15.24m, 2. Seema Antil (Har) 14.44, 3. Neelam (Har) 13.16. 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:46.04, 2. Jharkhand 3:51.65, 3. Bengal 4:02.20.