Joseph Abraham no hurdle for Satinder Singh

It was the turn of Punjab athletes to hog the limelight on the penultimate day of the 51st national senior inter-state athletics championships on a day when no existing records were broken. Satinder Singh and Sapinder Kaur won the men’s and women’s 400 metres hurdles respectively.

Satinder’s win, in 51.13 seconds, against Guangzhou Asian Games gold medallist and national record holder Joseph G Abraham of Kerala was the highlight of the day. After a poor start, Abraham did well to catch up with the eventual winner. And though he tried hard to get past Satinder in the home stretch, the latter had good momentum which saw him through. Abraham’s statemate, Avin A Thomas, finished third. “I have not done speed training,” said Abraham. “I have just started training and hence, taking it easy. I should be fully geared up in some time. I will go for the Asian Championship but I have not prepared very well. However, the ultimate aim is to qualify for the Olympics.”

Maharashtra’s Kavita Raut clinched the women’s 5000m, in what turned out to be another great event. On the opening day, Kerala’s Preeja Sreedharan had pipped Kavita in the 10,000m event but the tables were turned on Monday. In the last stretch, Kavita shot past Preeja and Tamil Nadu’s L Surya too made a dash for it.

Kavita won, Surya came second, while Preeja finished third. Kavita said: “I’m not satisfied with the time. But I couldn’t have done any better because I was training at home till this month and we do not have a synthetic track there. So, we can’t use spikes. This is my first event with spikes and I’m sure I will be ready.”
Results:

Men: 400m hurdles: 1. Satinder Singh (Punjab, 51.13sec), 2. Joseph G Abraham (Kerala, 51.41), 3. Avin A Thomas (Kerala, 51.89); 5000m: 1. Suresh K Patel (Uttar Pradesh, 14:11.47min), 2. Arjun Pradhan (Uttrakhand, 14:13.70), 3. Rahul K Pal (Maharashtra, 14:16.82)
Shot put: 1. Saurav Vij (Delhi, 18.99m), 2. Budhisatva (Madhya Pradesh, 17.98), 3. Jagroop Singh (Punjab, 17.85); Hammer throw: 1. Harvinder S Dagar (Uttar Pradesh, 66.21m), 2. Chandrodaya N Singh (UP, 63.44), 3. Shiv Kumar (Uttrakhand, 61.90); High jump: 1. Jithin Thomas (Mah, 2.10m), 2. L Yogaraj (TN, 2.10), 3. Nikhil Chitrasu (TN, 2.10); Women: 400m hurdles: 1. Sapinder Kaur (Punjab, 1:00.56 min), 2. Darshana MS (Kerala, 1:01.45), 3. Soniya KA (Kerala, 1:02.65); 5000m: 1. Kavita Raut (Maharashtra, 17:00.89min), 2. L Surya (Tamil Nadu, 17:01.00), 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Kerala, 17:01.22); Triple jump: 1. Prajusha MA (Kerala, 13.53m), 2. Shraddha Ghule (Maharashtra, 12.80), 3. Amitha Baby (Kerala, 12.61);

Pole vault: 1. Remya R (Kerala, 3.40m), 2. Khyathi (Karnataka, 3.40), 3. Kiranbir Kaur (Punjab, 3.30); 100m Heptathlon hurdles: 1. Sushmita Singha Roy (West Bengal, 683, 5625), 2. Navpreet Kaur (Punjab, 520, 5070), 3. D Kapurmala (Tamil Nadu, 588, 4911)