Chennai: Steeplechaser Sudha Singh became the first athlete to earn a berth for this year’s World championships in Moscow with a national record on the third day of National Inter-State Athletics Championships here.
It was eighth national mark for the 26-year-old Chief Ticket Inspector in Central Railway within a span of six years. Sudha started her quest for gold in steeplechase only after graduated to senior level. Her first major win came from National Games at Guwahati in 2007. She was a dominant force in India barring two occasions—during the Inter-State meets at Madurai in 2008 and Patiala two years later—when she finished second behind O.P. Jaisha on the both times.
Sudha, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist had also won two silver medals in the Asian championships in 2009 and 2011.
“I am confident of winning the Gold at Pune” a beaming Sudha told reporters after the race. Expressing her happiness on attained the qualification to the Moscow Worlds, she revealed that there was no pre-set plan to improve her national mark today.
It turned out to be a one horse race as the Uttar Pradesh runner broke away from the bunch and started running alone in the front with a good lead right from the beginning. When she crossed the finish-line at 9:45.60 her coach J.S. Bhatia jumped in joy and shouted “national record”.
Sudha’s first record came in Jamshedpur when she clocked 10:18.76 in 2007 to win the Nationals. She then keep on improving it and the one before her today’s assault came in Huelva, Spain, last year (9:47.70) en route to her London Olympics sojourn.
Progression of Indian Records in steeplechase
10:18.76 Sudha Singh 25-Oct-2007 Jamshedpur
10:10.77 Sudha Singh 12-Nov-2009 Guangzhou
10:09.56 Sudha Singh 17-May-2010 Kochi
10:03.05 O.P. Jaisha 08-Aug-2010 Patiala
9:57.63 Sudha Singh 09-Oct-2010 New Delhi
9:55.67 Sudha Singh 21-Nov-2010 Guangzhou
9:49.25 Sudha Singh 19-May-2012 Shanghai
9:47.70 Sudha Singh 07-Jun-2012 Huelva
9:45.60 Sudha Singh 06-Jun-2013 Chennai
Today’s performance put Sudha Singh as the Asian Leader in steeplechase for this season. Bahrain’s Ruth Chebet was the earlier leader with her silver winning 9:52.47 achieved in Doha during the Arab championships in May.
Mayookha secured double in jumps Asian long jump champion and Sudha Singh’s teammate in London Olympics, Mayookha Johny, completes a “double” by adding her victory in triple jump today to the long jump gold which she won on the opening day.
Mayookha was trailing behind her Kerala state-mate N.V. Sheena after the three jumps. However she leapt in to 13.46m on the fourth and that assured her the top spot. A sigh of relief after her last round 13.58m
Mayookha revealed her main concentration this year will be on long jump and is expecting to defend her title in it at Pune.
Overall it was a profitable day for the defending champions Kerala as their athletes went on to win three more gold medals through high jump and relay races. Jithin Thomas retained his title in the high jump after locked in to battle with his main rival Nikhil Chittarasu (Tamil Nadu).
Both the jumpers cleared an identical 2.17m but Jithin adjudged winner for having did it on his first attempt.
The sprint relay quartets from Kerala once again proved they are unmatchable. The men’s squad of Anuroop John, K.G. Renjith, Shameer Mon and Rahul G. Pillai improved the previous meet record by one-hundredth of a second to win in 40.49 secs. Neethu Rajan, S. Sini, P.K. Priya and Merlin K. Joseph romped home 46.77 secs to clinch the women’s title.
However the Kerala camp was highly disappointed to see the national recorder and defending champion K.P. Bimin ended his fray in pole vault with a “no height”. Haryana’s Praveen Kumar won the event with 4.90m.
Earlier in the morning Deepmala Devi defends her title in the women’s 20 km walk with a time of 1:44:20 while Gujarat lad Babubhai Panucha upsets Punjab’s Surinder Singh in the men’s race to win in 1:28:07.2.
Rajasthan’s Manju Bala (56.84m) and U.P. boy Chandrodaya Narayan Singh (67.54) have been successfully defended their title in the hammer throw for women and men respectively.
