Gunners punish a hapless United
Mallala Anusha overcame unwanted distractions and a sti challenge from an experienced Sheena N.V. to achieve her personal best and win the women’s triple jump crown on the opening day of the National Federation athletics meet on Sunday.
The 21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh leaped to 13.53m, just 0.04 o the 18year-old meet record, to beat Sheena in style in pleasant conditions.
Anusha, whose previous best was 13.40m when she won the National Open meet in Bengaluru last year, had claimed the bronze in the Goa National Games with 13.16m.
She set the tone by jumping 13.28m in her second attempt. Sheena, a former Asian championships bronze medallist, responded with 13.32m.
Anusha consistently produced good jumps to give Sheena a good chase but faced some challenges in her fourth and fth jumps. She was not happy from where her fourth attempt was measured and marked 13.29m.
She protested strongly over a similar issue in her fth jump, which was remeasured from a di erent spot and was rectied from 13.11m to 13.35m, helping her restore lead.
The Andhra jumper gave her best in her nal attempt and won the title comfortably.
Santhosh Kumar T., who spent about 20 days in the Bahamas camp and then competed in a World Continental tour event in Dubai to time 50.32, won the men’s 400m hurdles comfortably.
Taking a clear lead after the last bend, Santhosh nished his second race of the season clocking 50.04.
The Asian bronze medallist expected a better timing. “The wait of almost 45 minutes before the race perhaps cooled my body down. It was not my day,” said Santosh.
Veerpal Kaur, targetting 58s, was the unexpected winner of the women’s 400m hurdles as she stopped the clock at 59.43s to take the gold.
Vithya withdraws
Vithya Ramraj, who had hit the headlines by equalling the legendary P.T. Usha’s National record of 55.42s at the Hangzhou Asian Games in October last, disappointed all by withdrawing from the race early.
Vithya began visibly slowly and ran only a few metres before pulling out and walking o with a ‘back’ issue.
The other big name, Siva S., did not compete in pole vault, which was won by Asian under-20 bronze medallist Dev Meena with a mark of 5.10m.
Local favourite Animesh Kujur was the lone sprinter to clock a sub-21 (20.81s) time in the men’s 200m seminals.
The results (finals):
Men: 400mH: 1. Santhosh Kumar T. (TN) 50.04, 2. Nikhil Bhardwaj (Pun) 50.92, 3. Dhaval Mahesh Utekar (Guj) 51.13.
Pole vault: 1. Dev Kumar Meena (MP) 5.10m, 2. Shekhar Kumar Pandey (UP) 4.90m, 3. Hariharan R. (TN) 4.0m.
Women: 400mH: 1. Veerpal Kaur (Pun) 59.43, 2. Salini Valuparamnil Kris (Ker) 1:00.73, 3. Ramandeep Kaur (Pun) 1:01.29. Triple jump: 1. Mallala Anusha (AP) 13.53m, 2. Sheena N.V. (Ker) 13.32m, 3. Gayathry Sivakumar (Ker) 13.08m. Javelin: 1. Rashmi K. (AP) 54.75m, 2. Karishma Sanil (Kar) 49.91m, 3. Rupinder Kaur Sohal (Pun) 47.66m.
5000m: 1. Lili Das (WB) 16:31.05, 2. Poonam Sonune (Mah) 17:02.51, 3. Kiran (Har) 17:06.64.
Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard capitalised on dreadful Manchester United defending to give his side a 1-0 victory on Sunday that saw Mikel Arteta’s men provisionally overtake Manchester City for top spot in Premier League.
While Arsenal, which won for just the second time at Old Tra ord in its last 17 visits, has 86 points with one game left of the tightest title race in years, holder City remain in the driving seat with 85 points and two matches to play.
Trossard scored in the 20th minute when Kai Havertz strolled barely challenged into space on the right side before sending the ball into the box for Trossard to tuck home.
The game swung from end to end over a nal tense few minutes, with United goalkeeper Andre Onana leaping to push away shots from substitute
The wait of almost 45 minutes before the race perhaps cooled my body down. It was not my day
Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice. United is eighth with two games left, and trail sixth-placed Newcastle by three points.
Newly-crowned LaLiga champion Real Madrid earned a 4-0 victory over Granada on Saturday, extending its unbeaten league run to 28 games.
The results: Premier League: Nottingham Forest 2 (Boly 16, Hudson-Odoi 74) lost to Chelsea 3 (Mudryk 8, Sterling 80, Jackson 82); United 0 bt Arsenal 1 (Trossard 21). LaLiga: Granada 0 lost to Real Madrid 4 (Garcia 38, Guler 45+2, Diaz 49, 58); Athletic Bilbao 2 (Inaki Williams 58, Villalibre 90+6) drew with Osasuna 2 (Raul Garcia 40, Ruben Garcia 48); Cadiz 1 (Alcaraz 35-pen) bt Getafe 0; Atletico 1 (De Paul 84) bt Celta Vigo 0.
Serie A: Lazio 2 (Patric 45+2, Vecino 89) bt Empoli 0; AC Milan 5 (Bennacer 35, Pulisic 59, 86, Reijnders 74, Leao 84) bt Cagliari 1 (Nandez 63); Napoli 0 lost to Bologna 2 (Ndoye 9, Posch 12); Genoa 2 (Badelj 56, Kumbulla 63-og) bt Sassuolo 1 (Pinamonti 31-pen); Verona 1 (Swiderski 67) lost to Torino 2 (Savva 77, Pellegri 83).