Jauna, Dutee among seven to make Asian Games cut
GUWAHATI: Seven athletes achieved the qualifying mark for Jakarta Asian Games on the opening day of the National Inter State Athletics Championships here on Tuesday.
Odisha’s Jauna Murmu set the ball rolling by earning the berth in women’s 400m hurdles. Her winning time of 57.02 seconds was inside the qualifying mark of 57.52 secs and bettered the meet record of 57.21 secs.
“It was a nervous start,” she said. “But I managed to handle the pressure as the race progressed. When I entered the home straight, I couldn’t see my rivals and that was when I realised I was coming first; it gave me the confidence to accelerate,” she said.
It was the season’s best for Jauna though her personal best is 56.86 secs, clocked while finishing fourth in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
The men’s 400m hurdles was equally exciting as the top three came under the Games qualification mark of 50.80 secs. Favourite A Dharun (49.58 secs) won, followed by Santhosh Kumar T (50.10 secs) and Jashanjot Singh (50.64secs). Only the top two will make it to the squad, as per the Athletics Federation of India norms. Dharun and Santhosh were part of the national team that went for a three-week training stint in Poland’s Olympic training centre in Sapala. Discus thrower Sandeep Kumari of Haryana achieved the Games mark of 57m with a best throw of 58.41m. Seema Punia has been exempted from participating in this final qualifying event here and assured entry to the Games. Sanjeevani Jadhav of Maharashtra made the cut in women’s 5,000m, winning in 15:38.78 secs to eclipse the meet mark of 15:46.92 secs. The qualifying time was 15:45 secs. Hammer thrower Sarita R Singh of Uttar Pradesh qualified with a winning throw of 63.28m. She also bettered the meet record of 63.22m. The qualifying mark was 60m.
Despite having their office in the Indira Gandhi International Stadium, the National Anti Doping Agency officials did not subject the medal winners to dope test immediately.
Life Care Foundation 1 (Ahad Shaikh 24) drew Regal FA 1 (Vaibhav Marde 50); St Rock 1 (Omkar Gupta 46) bt Kapadia Nagar ‘B’ 0; Britacel Silicones 4 (Allan Bhaver 6, Clyde Fernandes 12, Dhaval Vishwadia 16, Rocky Fernandes 19) bt Juhu Beach ‘B’ 0;
7th Palghar District Carrom results Men’s 2nd round: Giridhar Bhoj bt Santosh Palwankar 25-10, 25-12; Hrudayanath Bengle bt Vishal Sonawane 25-12, 25-6; Pratap Sawant bt Subhash Bangera 25-5, 25-8;
Shrikant Kamble bt Pradeep Kolbekar 25-8, 25-6; Bipin Pande bt Yashwant Konadkar 25-12, 25-10; Ganesh Yadav bt Hemant Palwankar 25-1, 25-7.