Amarjeet leaps to new mark

Shameer mon, Poonam Tomar emerge fastest athletes

MADURAI: It was Jharkhand athlete Amarjeet Singh who hogged the limelight on the second day of the 48th Inter-State

Athletic meet, creating a meet record with a jump of 16.67 metres at MGR Race Course here on Monday. Most of the events were lacklustre as almost all the stars decided to give it a skip ahead of Beijing Olympics.

Even Beijing-bound triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary has a disappointing Day I finishing second, after Amarjit. Maheshwary had to be content with best jump of 16.21m which much below his best mark in the competition two years ago (16.50m).
Meanwhile, Shameer Mon and Poonam Tomar from Kerala and Delhi, respectively, emerged the fastest man and woman in the championships.

Shameer missed the mark by a whisker taking 0.5 seconds more than the 13-year-old record set by Sandeep Sarkaria of Delhi (10.45m). Poonam clocked 11.93 to claim the top spot.