Maheshwari battles pain for gold; Railways champions

NEW DELHI: He is still nursing a back pain, but that did not stop Railways' Renjith Maheshwari from winning the triple jump gold ahead of national record holder Arpinder Singh on the final day of the National Open Athletics championship here on Wednesday.
Maheshwari was so troubled by his injury for most part of the season that he could not perform up to potential in several tournaments. But on Wednesday, he braved the pain to finish on top with a 16.09m jump.ONGC's Arpinder came third with a jump of 15.89 while the silver went to U Karthik of Services.
"I am being troubled by this injury for sometime now.It had improved but returned soon after the Asian Games. I can feel the pain right now.From here I will head to Kerala to get some Ayurvedic treatment for the injury," the triple jumper said after his win.
It was double delight for the athlete whose medal came a day after his wife VS Surekha returned with a gold medal with a national record in pole vault. "More than my medal, I feel happy for her gold. I know she could have done much better."
It turned out to be a bittersweet moment for Railways' OP Jaisha who won her sec ond gold in the competition ­ she won the 1500m on Wednesday. A slight faster run would have enhanced her chances of qualifying for the World Championships.Jaisha had earlier won the 5000m gold.
"It's not easy to achieve the mark required for the World Championship as the field was slow. But I have other events coming up. So I hope to qualify then," she said.