Shakti reigns supreme

BANGALORE, JULY 12: It was like old times for Shakti Singh. Always a multiple gold winner, a knee injury in 1994 had forced him to cut do...

BANGALORE, JULY 12: It was like old times for Shakti Singh. Always a multiple gold winner, a knee injury in 1994 had forced him to cut down on the number of events. But back to his old fitness this year, he has been on a roll, winning a double in each of the three circuit meets he has taken part thus far.

On Monday, he was unstoppable at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in the KEB AAFI International Athletic meet where he won his third set of gold — in the shotput and discus throw events. Nagercoil and Thiruvananthapuram legs also had seen him perform similar feat.

Shakti’s one heave saw him hurl the iron ball 18.74 metres which was good enough for a gold. He had achieved 18.99 at Thiruvananthapuram but since he wanted to compete in discus too, he opted for just one throw. Jaiveer Singh of Services finished second with 17.40m followed by Ali Sayah Irani of Iran (16.96m).

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Shati hurled the disc over 54.65m for a gold though he has no intention of competing in the event at the international level. This was a good metre more than the effort of second placed Anil Kumar of TELCO.

Anil Kumar of Services covered himself with glory clocking 21.06 seconds in the 200 metres for the gold. Incidentally, Anil is deemed to have equalled Milkha Singh’s record in the event. Milkha clocked a manual time of 20.7s in Lahore in 1960. Anil’s electronic time today was 21.06s. Since one second is subtracted from electronic time, while comparing it with manual time, Anil has equalled the 39 year-old-mark, according to official sources.

National record holder in hammer throw, Pramod Tiwari of Uttar Pradesh, also made it three-in-a row clearing a distance of 66.21m while Virender Punia of Railways, who threw 65.33 metres, recorded his third second place finish.

Also recording a treble in the three legs gone through was 26-year-old Sri Lankan national sprint champion Chintaka De Zoysa. He stopped the clock at 10.42s to emerge the fastest runner of the meet ahead of Anil Kumar who finished 0.11 seconds later. This was his career best time too.

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The Kenyans continued their domination in the middle and long distances. In the 3,000m, Charles Kamathi of Kenya looked unstoppable as he clocked 7:56.58s. His team-mate and National champion Gideon Chirchir finished in 8:04.60s and Zarekar Ahmad was third with 8:21.29s.

It was one-two-three for Kenya in 1500m with Gideon Chirchir timing of 3:43.67s. Chirchir, who trains in France, ran the 1500 to improve his speed. No 4 in Kenya, Chirchir is trying for a berth on the national team for the Worlds to be held in Seville, Spain. Joseph Mutua and Maidna Dedan clocked 3:46.10 and 3:47.22s respectively.

Long jumper G G Pramila surprised National champion Anju Markose to clinch the gold. She jumped 6.14m on the fourth attempt while Anju did 6.04 on first try and could not improve upon it.

Other notable performances came from Sunita Rani and Lijo David of Railways. Sunita beat the field that included Kenyans and ran away comfortable winner at 2:06.99s. Her team-mate Beenamol overtook Kenyan Hannah Njeri in the last 50 metres to time 2:10.02. Hannah tried to push at the finish but had to settle for third place (2:10.22).