Mayookha sets National record

Mayookha Johny bettered Anju George's triple jump National record with a leap of 13.68 metres on the second day of the 50th National inter-State athletics championships at the NIS Complex here on Friday.

More sensational was 20-year-old Pankaj Dimri's 1:46.26secs for the 800m, the second best timing by an Indian after Sriram Singh's 1:45.77s in the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

Francis Sagayaraj who came second timed 1:46.77s to become the fourth best Indian, behind Ghamnda Ram.

PRIME TARGET

On a rainy day, both Mayookha and coach Jose Mathew were diffident about going all out towards their prime target, that of reaching 13.60m and qualifying for the Commonwealth Games. That was achieved on her second jump and the21-year-old Kerala girl came up with a 13.68m effort on her next jump to go past Anju's 2002 mark by one centimetre.

“I am very happy to have done this on my return to competition after a one-and-a-half year lay-off because of injury (right ankle ligament),” said Mayookha.

“We have set targets and achieved them every year,” said Mathew.

Their targets for the Commonwealth Games were 6.70m plus in long jump and 14m plus in the triple. She had achieved a personal best of 6.64m in the long jump in the recent Asian All-Star meet in Delhi.

The conditions were never going to be ideal for the jumpers, rains having lashed the city late afternoon.

Mayookha said water was sprouting from underneath the board every time the jumpers placed their foot hard.

A little-known Punjab athlete, Kulwinder Kaur jumped from a personal best (PB) of 13.18m to 13.42m to upstage M.A. Prajusha (13.28m) for the silver.

Tamil Nadu girl Gayathri Govindaraj gave up having started, with a best of 12.76m for fourth place.

START-TO-FINISH EFFORT

Pankaj Dimri, the young middle distance runner from Chamoli, Uttarakhand, made a start-to-finish effort in the 800 metres, turning back towards the finish and losing precious fractions.

Dimri, a trainee of Belarus coach Nikolai Snesarev and Indian Ridmal Singh had a previous PB of 1:48.71 clocked at Jamshedpur in 2009. Incidentally, the Snesarev stable had not been throwing up too many good results of late and this should provide cheer to the tough coach. Dimri was joint 57th best performer in the world this season. He also made the Commonwealth Games qualification mark that stood at 1:47.50.

P. Kunhumohammed, 23, who has broken into the top ranks in 400 metres only this season, clocked a PB of 46.86s, winning effortlessly against such established stars as Bibin Mathew and V.B. Bineesh. The leading 400m runner this season, Shakeh Mortaja was absent because of a bereavement.

The results: Men: 400m: 1. P. Kunhumohammed (Ker) 46.86; 2. Vinay Chaudhary (UP) 47.18; 3. Premanand (TN) 47.69. 800m: 1. Pankaj Dimri (Utr) 1:46.26 (NMR, previous 1:47.99); 2. Francis Sagayaraj (TN) 1:46.77; 3. Manjit Singh (Pun) 1:47.24. High jump: 1. L. Yograj (TN) 2.10; 2. Nikhil Chittarasu (TN) 2.10; 3. Benedict Starley (TN) 2.10. Javelin: 1. Kashinath Naik (Kar) 76m; 2. Rajender Dalbir Singh (Har) 75.26; 3. Samarjeet Singh (Raj) 74.87. Decathlon: 1. Bhartender Singh (Har) 7151 pts; 2. Vinod P.J. (Ker) 6820; 3. Vijay Kumar (Har) 6728.

Women: 400m: 1. Mandeep Kaur (Pun) 52.13; 2. Jauna Murmu (Ori) 52.78; 3. Ashwini A.C. (Kar) 53.30. 800m: 1. Sinimole Paulose (Jkd) 2:04.04; 2. Bindu S.R. (Ker) 2:06.84; 3. Anu Mariyam Jose (UP) 2:10.89. Triple jump: 1. Mayookha Johny (Ker) 13.68 (National record, previous 13.67); 2. Kulwinder Kaur (Pun) 13.42; 3. M.A. Prajusha (Ker) 13.28. Shot put: 1. Manpreet Kaur (Pun) 14.02; 2. Patwant Kaur (Pun) 13.83; 3. Seema Antil (Har) 13.74. 20km walk: 1. L. Sharda Devi (Chd) 1:55:40; 2. Supriya Adak (Mah) 1:58:00; 3. Ranjana Gupta (MP) 1:59:00.