Sajeesh Joseph runs to 800m gold

Sajeesh Joseph stole the show as he outclassed Manjeet Singh with a brilliant finish in winning the men’s 800m on the second day of the 18th Federation Cup athletics championships at the NIS here on Sunday.

After keeping pace with Manjeet, Sajeesh broke free with 200m to go for the finish to clock one minute, 46.86 seconds, a meet record that erased the old mark of 1:47.74 set by Ghamanda Ram in 2006.

“I wanted to come under 1:46.48. It was a good race, and we pushed hard. This has been a target for me for the last eight years,” said Sajeesh, even as he thanked his coach Ajit Markose.

There was a meet record in javelin throw as Rajender Singh of Haryana threw 79.32m, on his third attempt in the final, to beat the old mark of 78.85 set by Jagdish Bishnoi in 2000. He was consistent with throws of 76.64, 77.97, 79.32, 75.55, 75.03 and 77.54.

Davinder Singh, who had failed to make the final of the Commonwealth Games, claimed the silver with an effort of 78.17m, while CWG finalist Ravinder Singh could only manage a distance of 71.96.

Jithin Paul won the men’s 400m hurdles ahead of Joseph Abraham, Ramachandran and Balamurugan, with a time of 50.48s, very close to his personal best. He declared that he actually had aimed for the national record of 49.51.

In men’s long jump, national record-holder Kumaravel Premkumar failed once again after the disappointment in Lucknow, as he had two no marks in the final, after a below par 6.82m that stopped him from moving to the final. He had jumped 7.42m in qualification on the first attempt and had packed up on Saturday.

Ankit Sharma clinched the gold with a fourth jump of 7.55m, ahead of Vigneshvar and Silambarasan of Tamil Nadu.

In women’s long jump, M.A. Prajusha took the gold at 6.23m, while Mayookha Johny was placed fourth with a jump of 6.08.

In the 20km walk, Rani Yadav of Uttar Pradesh won with a time of one hour, 42 minutes and 24 seconds. In the absence of the national record-holder Khushbir Kaur, who has already achieved the qualification guideline of 1:35:13, the race lacked the pace even as the walkers sweated in buckets in the morning heat and humidity.

The 21-year-old Khushbir, who achieved a fresh national record of 1:31:40 in May, had entered, but did not start. Only 13 started and seven managed to finish, and that included Saroj Rani of Punjab, who clocked 2:42:27.

Late on Saturday, Manju Bala of Rajasthan set a new mark in women’s hammer throw with a heave of 62.15m. The earlier mark of 61.31 had stood against the name of Hardeep Kaur since June 2002.

Manju Bala herself holds the national record of 62.74m, which she set in the national inter-State championship in Lucknow in June.

In men’s pole vault, Kundan Singh of Air Force set a new meet mark of 5.05m as he erased the previous mark of 5.02 set by G. Upadhyaya in 2010.

The national record-holder K.P. Bimin, who had leaped to a high of 5.13m two years ago in Jabalpur, had to settle for silver along with Praveen Kumar of ONGC at 4.80m.

In women’s high jump, Sahana Kumari could not go beyond 1.80m as against her own national record of 1.92.

The results: Men: 100m: 1. Jyoti Sankar Debnath 10.50, 2. Krishnakumar 10.62, 3. Amiya Kumar 10.65; 800m: 1. Sajeesh Joseph 1:46.86 ( NMR , old 1:47.74), 2. Manjeet Singh 1:48.48, 3. Jinson Johnson 1:50.74; 400m hurdles: 1. Jithin Paul 50.48, 2. Joseph Abraham 50.75, 3. Ramachandran 51.11; Long jump: 1. Ankit Sharma 7.55, 2. Vigneshvar 7.39, 3. Silambarasan 7.36.

Pole vault: 1. Kundan Singh 5.05 ( NMR , old 5.02), 2. K.P. Bimin 4.80 & Praveen Kumar 4.80; Shot put: 1. Inderjeet Singh 19.89 ( NMR , old 19.68), 2. Om Prakash Singh 18.89, 3. Jasdeep Singh 18.84; Javelin: 1. Rajender Singh 79.32 ( NMR , old 78.85), 2. Davinder Singh 78.57, 3. Rohit Kumar 76.61; Decathlon: 1. Daya Ram 6892, 2. V.V. Raneesh 6735, 3. Vijay Kumar 6514.

Women: 100m: 1. Sharada Narayana 11.72, 2. Srabani Nanda 11.86, 3. Asha Roy 11.92; 800m: 1. Sushma Devi 2:11.76, 2. Gomathi 2:11.99, 3. Sini Ajith Markose 2:13.92; 400m hurdles: 1. A.C. Ashwini 57.96, 2. R. Anu 58.58, 3. M. Arpitha 58.69; High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari 1.80, 2. Mallika Mondal 1.73, 3. Sonu 1.70.

Long jump: 1. M.A. Prajusha 6.23, 2. V. Neena 6.12, 3. Shraddha Ghule 6.11; Hammer: 1. Manju Bala 62.15 ( NMR , old 61.30), 2. Gunjan Singh 59.24, 3. Reena Kumari 56.33; 20km walk: 1. Rani Yadav 1:42:24.00, 2. Sapna 1:44:45.00, 3. Sandeep Kaur 1:46:10.00.