Usha sparkles on lacklustre day

BANGALORE, December 22: Sparkling performance from PT Usha was the only highlight of an otherwise lacklustre show on the opening day of the...

BANGALORE, December 22: Sparkling performance from PT Usha was the only highlight of an otherwise lacklustre show on the opening day of the three-day Inter-State Athletics Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday. With the Inter-State meet following close on the heels of the Open Nationals, empty lanes forced cancellation of heats in majority of events and competition was lop-sided. The ones who made their mark at Gandhinagar at the Open Nationals last fortnight deciding to give this meet a miss, keen competition was at a premium.

Be that as it may, Usha returning to the stadium which fetched her first national medal way back in 1981, spread-eagled the opposition with a power-packed run inside the final 100 metres and was a winner long way from home in the 200 m. Usha clocked an impressive timing of 23.29 seconds, which bettered her meet record of 23.7 seconds. Delhi’s Vanitha Tripathi was a distant second at 24.47 seconds followed by Karnataka’s Vasanthi.

Predictably, Kerala’s Lekha Thomas reigned supreme in the women’s long jump with a meet record to boot. Though her effort of 6.23 metres was well below her best of 6.30 metres, the distance bettered the previous mark of 6.13 metres. Tamil Nadu’s Anju Marcose (6.12 metres) and West Bengal’s Kalpana Das (5.84) took the next two spots.

Results:

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MEN 200 m: R Kishan (Kar) 21.92 secs 1; Ooman Thomas (TN) 2; PC Dileep (Ker) 3. 1500 m: Satish Kumar (Pnb) 3:59.6 secs; Varinder (Delhi); PS Salim Kumar (Gujarat). 10,000 M: Harish Tiwari (Delhi) 31:33.5 secs; IA Shivananda (Kar); N Gojan Singh (Man). High jump: M Lorans (Ker) 2.09 m; Sunilkumar Azad (Ori); Langa Mirandi (Del). Shot put: Jogesh (Del) 16.64 m; Sathyanarayana (Kar); CK Poonachana (Kar)

WOMEN 200 m: PT Usha (Ker) 23.29 secs NMR; Vinitha Tripathi (Del); Vasanthi (Kar). 1500 m: Rosa Kutty (Kar) 4:23.3 secs; Dayamanthi (Del); Ramala Devi (Pnb). 10,000 m: Renuka Hegde (Kar) 38:44.65 secs; Vijaya Sonavane (Mah); KP Suma (Kar). Long jump: Lekha Thomas (Ker) 6.23 m NMR; Anju Marcos (TN); Kalpana Das (WB). Hammer throw: Surendharjit (Pnb) 48.96 m NMR; Vardhavenkatarathna (Mah); D Padma (TN).