Crowd violence mars Neelam Singh’s feat

BANGALORE, June 9: Crowed violence, following the disqualification of the Karnataka women's relay squad, marred the penultimate day's proce...

BANGALORE, June 9: Crowed violence, following the disqualification of the Karnataka women’s relay squad, marred the penultimate day’s proceedings of the track and field competitions at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday.

Neelam J Singh’s National record-breaking effort in the women’s discus throw thus paled into the background as there was a hold-up for more than an hour due to crowd hurling chairs from the top tier of the main pavilion. One such chair caused a bleeding injury to Neelam Rai, silver medallist in the women’s 10000 metres run, to her nose and head. Fortunately, the athlete escaped without any serious injury. Calm was restored after the public heeded to the appeal made by Karnataka team manager Arjun Devaiah.Later, P T Usha had her moment of glory, anchoring the Kerala relay team to an emphatic victory.

The Karnataka relay team has been a subject of controversy from the start. With three coaches training the athletes selected for the relay, the team had not practised together even once. Former international Sunil Abraham who was in charge of the relay squad reportedly backed out when his trainee Poonam Belliappa switched her loyalities to Delhi, after being omitted from the Karnataka squad.

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Coach Purushotham Rai said: “Sunil informed that he would not be involved in the composition of the team and there was last minute shuffle. As a result, inexperienced Sumana replaced Poonam Belliappa in the first leg, with Asha slated to run the second lap, followed by Vasanti and Shyla. The starter too delayed starting the race,” he said.

The trouble arose because Sumana, reportedly, only wobbled and did not jump the gun. It was compounded by the belief among many that the recall starter first credited the second foul to lane number five where Tamil Nadu was placed but changed later to lane number four, which had Karnataka’s Sumana. The crowd grew restive and started hurling chairs and relented only after a brief hold-up. Majority of the athletes taking part in sprint events were of the view that the starter was known to be slow, causing many foul starts.Be that as it may, Punjab’s Neelam basked in glory at the discus ring, with an effort of 53.78 metres, which bettered the national record of 53.76 metres by the narrowest margin. Teammate Harjeet Kaur and Haryana’s Sumanjeet Kaur took the next two spots.

Predicatably, Shakti Singh won the men’s shot put, hurling the iron ball to a distance of 18.88 metres, bettering the Games record in the process. The old record stood at 17.74 metres. Shakti had earlier won the discus on the opening day.

Yet another athlete who completed a double was Madhuri A Singh of Punjab, who completed her supremacy in the long distance races, winning the 5000m with ease. After running a handy second behind Maharashtra’s M A Molly, Madhuri went clear in the final lap to win by a margin of over 50 metres. She had earlier won the gruelling 10,000 metres race as well.Karnataka’s Harish Kushalappa started the day on a bright day for the home team supporters after winning the 110 metres high hurdles in a timing of 14.77 seconds from Linesh Pathak of Maharashtra.

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Amit Khana of Delhi anchored his team to a splendid win in the 4×100 metres men’s relay. He made up a lot of lost ground in the final lap, edging out the Services team in a close finish in a timing of 41.42 seconds.