Kerala State Youth Athletics: Boby sizzles

KOCHI: Alappuzha's Boby Sabu bettered the meet record in youth boy's triple jump event with a leap of 14.41 metres on the concluding day of the Olympian Sureshbabu Memorial 5th Kerala State Youth Athletics Championships at Maharaja's College stadium on Wednesday.
Two more meet records were erased in youth category with Palakkad's Ajith PN setting new timing in boys 3000m (8 minutes 58.10 seconds) and hosts Rahul Sibi (5206 points) garnering more points in grueling decathlon event.
In the senior championships held simultaneously, Rahul Ratheesh E of Kozhikode hurled the discus to a new distance of 48.31m to bring the lone record show in the two-day senior meet which was shorn of stars who kept away owing to university examinations.
Meanwhile, Palakkad went home with all trophies on offer winning both men (77 points) and women (108) titles in seniors and boys (97) and girls (87) championships in youth category.
Boby, a former SAI, Thrissur trainee returned home to join ABVHSS, Muhamma after he failed to impress during his stint with SAI. His elder sister Sanitha Sabu, a national medalist in short hurdles and now with LIC, inspired him to continue in athletics.
At his new school back home, Savinayan V, physical education teacher, asked him to try out long,triple jumps and 400m race events. The PE teacher finally asked him to concentrate on triple seriously and the success came on Wednesday with a record jump of 14.41m in his third jump. Boby erased the two-year-old record of 14.12m set by Ajith MA.
Malappuram's Shahad NV (13.76m) and Mohammed Salih KK (13.56m) took silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Important results:
Seniors women 1500m: Chitra PU (Pkd, 4: 43.60s), Vidhya KK (Pkd, 4: 51.20), Safeeda MP (Tvm, 4: 55.00); overall: Palakkad 108, 2 Kottayam 100, 3 Ernakulam 48
Men 800m Lijo Mani (Ekm, 1: 54.30), Raman Yadav (Ekm, 1: 56.40), George John (Ekm, 1: 56.40); high jump: Sreenith Mohan (Tsr 2.10m), Atul Isenth (Alp 1.85m), Mahendran M (Pkd, 1.70m); discus throw: Rahul Ratheesh E (Kkd, 48.31m NMR, OR 44.62m Lal Babu B in 1997), Jestin Jose (Ekm, 38.89m), Nithin Baby (Knr, 27.84m);Overall: 1 Palakkad 77, 2 Ernakulam 68, 3 Idukki 61, 4 Kozhikode 50, 5 Thiruvananthapuram 48
Youth girls: 400m hurdles: Sayana PO (Klm, 1: 7.70), Mary Jacqulin P Yesudas (Klm, 1: 10.20), Vincy KK (Pkd, 1:13.20); 800m: Abitha Mary Manuel (Kkd, 2:13.60), Babitha C(Pkd, 2:13.80s), Soorya S (Pkd, 2: 36.80s); 200m: Sneha K (Kkd, 26.40s), Lekha Unni (Ekm, 27.00), Sibila Linet John (Knr, 27.70 Sec); Overall: 1 Palakkad 87, 2 Ernakulam 56, 3 Idukki 45, 4 Kozhikode 31, 5 Thiruvananthapuram 26
Boys: 3000m: Ajith PN (Palakkad, 8:58.10 NMR, OR Rahul PR 9.1.92 in 2011), Aswin Antony (Tvm, 9:16.50), Rahul Shoeran (Pkd, 9:54.60); high jump: Manu Franics (1.95m), Geo Jose (1.95m), Prajesh P (Mlpm, 1.75m); Rahul Sibi (Ekm, 5206 points NMR, OR 5026 Dinesh D in 2014), Aby Shaji MS (Tsr, 4834), Fahd Karim (Klm 4349);
Overall: 1 Palakkad 97, 2 Malappuram 76.5, 3 Ernakulam 47, 4 Thiruvananthapuram 37, 5 Idukki 31
Kochi: Twelve-year-old Mumbai girl Diya Chitale made India proud when she won impressive 11 medals, five gold, four silver and two bronze medals in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) circuit recently. In the process, the Bandra girl also became the youngest from India to win singles gold medal at international level.
The Mumbai girl's latest exploit came on Tuesday when she clinched the mini-cadet singles crown in Mauritius. She beat hosts' Sandhana Desscann 11-6, 11-8, 11-4 in the final. In the semis, she overcame Seychelles Kim Horeau 11-8, 11-1, 11-6.
Earlier, she had won cadet (U-15) singles and doubles (U-18) gold in Tunisia Open in March, team gold (U-15 and U-18), both in Tunisia and Bahrain.
Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) president DR Choudhray congratulated Diya on her achievement. "Diya and Bangalore girl Archana Kamat are doing well in the cadet and sub-junior at ITTF circuit. I invite them to train at TTFI Academy at Indore from July which will be manned by either renowned coach from China or DPR Korea," TTFI chief said.
Earlier in Bahrain, Diya won cadet girls team title partnering Vidhi Shah. However, she lost the cadet singles final to Romanian girl Andreea Dragoman which was held at Manama in February.
In Tunisia Open held during March end, however, Diya won her first ever singles gold defeating hosts Fadwa Garci.
The 7th standard student of Arya Vidya Mandir, Bandra trains at Khar Gymkhana in the mornings and St Blaise HS in the evenings under the watchful eyes of coach Sachin Shetty.
Bangalore prodigy Archana Suresh Kamath had managed to win a silver in cadet (under-15) team event at Belgium Open last week. At the Italian Open held in March, Archana had won two bronze medals in the cadet girls team event and singles at the Italian Open.
Kochi: VN Prasood, a state champion in wrestling in 1976, is set to take over as secretary-general of Wrestling Federation of India on Sunday at a ceremony in New Delhi.
For four decades, Prasood has played the role of coach, international referee and director of competitions (DoC) in the sport and holds the post of senior vice-president in the outgoing team of WFI.
It was current president Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, BJP MP from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh, who will continue to lead the federation for the next four years, who picked Prasood as one of his trusted lieutenants.
Prasood, who worked as coach with KSRTC where he worked till he retired four years ago, earned the reputation as a non-nonsense international wrestling referee and a go-to-man as DoC. Prasood's high came during the recently concluded National Games. Wrestling held at Indoor Stadium, Mundayad in Kannur for four days was a smooth affair and was widely appreciated by wrestlers and coaches and federation officials.
"This is a reward for my good work I have done for the past 40 years for the sport in the country. I'm also overwhelmed that I have been made as secretary-general unanimously. I must confess here that I simply did not know that I had so much support from all over country," Prasood told TOI on Wednesday.
Prasood, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram will be the first from Kerala to head a national sports federation (NSF). "Wrestlers in India are the best among Asia. The support given to wrestlers will continue and our aim will be to increase more medals from Rio Olympics in 2016," he said about his priorities.
The first secretary-general from the south, Prasood felt that women's wrestling should be promoted in a big way. "We'll be working on that line. Kerala already have two girls at the national level from one sports hostel for wrestlers. Personally, I would like to see more girls joining wrestling. There is a lot of promise for women wrestler as the medals tally in Olympics will be increased soon. "