National Open Athletics Championship: Dutee Chand, Tintu Luka ensure Railways supremacy

KOLKATA: Competing in her first senior level event after winning a landmark gender case, sprinter Dutee Chand stole the limelight by winning 200m and 4x100m relay gold on the final day to complete her golden treble in the 55th National Open Athletics Championship here on Saturday.
The diminutive 19-year-old, who had won the 100m gold on the second day, reigned supreme in the 200m before helping Railways win the 4x100m relay to bag her third gold of the meet at SAI Complex here.
"I was nervous before coming here but my target is now fulfilled. I could achieve this because of love and blessings of all of you," Dutee said, flashing "V" and a broad grin.
Dutee had claimed a 100/200m double in Ranchi National Open two years ago and missed the last edition in Delhi as she was banned under IAAF's "hyperandrogenism" policy. After her appeal against this policy was partially upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, she took part in National Junior Federation Cup in Hyderabad last month and won gold in 200m.
Tintu Luka also lived up to the expectations when she smashed an 18-year-old 800m meet record, clocking 2.00.56 to win the last event of the concluding day.
Tintu took a big lead after finishing the first lap under 57 seconds but with no competition, she slowed down to reach the finish line with her best time in India as she defended the title fourth year in a row.
"She was alone at the finish so could not pace up but I'm happy with her effort," Usha said as Tintu got past her previous best timing in India -- 2:01.86 -- which she achieved while winning gold in Kerala National Games earlier this year.
Tintu has already qualified for Rio Olympics with her timing of 2:00.95s at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing last month.
It was the second meet record which came after the Services 4x400m relay quartet of V Sajin Sumit Kumar, Manas Y and Arokya Rajeev put together 3:06.63 to blaze past the previous best of 3:07.27, set by the same department in 2013.
Overall, Railways emerged champions with 267 points, far ahead of second placed ONGC (185) and Services (174.5) who however reigned supreme in the men's section.
Having achieved a double (in 400m and the relay), Arokya Rajeev of Services was adjudged Best Athlete among men, while in the women's section Lalita Babar, with a meet record in 3000m steeplechase, won the Best Athlete.
Niraj Kumar of Services retained the hammer throw gold second year in a row. T Gopi of Services retained the 10000m gold and L Surya of Railways did the same in women's 10000m for the fourth straight time.
Defending champion and meet record holder Kundan of Services was relegated to seventh position after Anuj of Haryana won the gold in men's pole vault.
Defending 200m champion Asha Roy was relegated to bronze medal by Odia duo of Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda but for their employers, Railways, it was a clean sweep.
Manikanda Arumugam of Railways retained the gold in men's 200m which saw an upset in the fastest man of the meet, Manikandan Raj, who finished a poor eighth.
There was an upset in men's 800m as well as defending champion Sajeesh Joseph of Railways was stopped from winning his fifth title and seventh overall after he ended third, behind Ajay Kumar Saroj and Vishamber Kolekar (Railways).
Men's triple jump also saw Renjith Maheshwari's bid to defend his title and seventh overall went in vain as Arpinder Singh clinched the gold.
Results:
Men's:
10000m: 1 Gopi T (Services; 30:07.70), 2 Kheta Ram (Services; 30:10.43), 3 Suresh Kumar (ONGC; 30:17.19).
Hammer throw: 1 Niraj Kumar (Services; 67.73), 2 Pargat Singh (Railways; 65.39), 3 Gurmeet Singh (Services; 64.83m).
200m: 1 Manikanda Arumugam (Railways; 21.35), 2 Vidya Sagar (Services; 21.36); 3 Mohit (ONGC; 21.49).
Triple jump: 1 Arpinder Singh (ONGC; 16.36), 2 Surendhar (Tamil Nadu; 16.29); 3 Arivu Selvam (Services; 16.20).
800m: 1 Ajay Kumar Saroj (ONGC; 1:54.87), 2 Vishamber Kolekar (Railways; 1:55.19), 3 Sajesh Joseph (Railways; 1:55.24).
4x100m: 1 Services A (Manish Kumar, Vidya Sagar, Joythi Shankar, Yesu Raj; 40.66), 2 Bihar A (Rahul Yadav, Yuvraj S, G Vamsi Parveen, Tejendra Singh; 41.04), 3 Punjab A (Satnam Singh, Meva Singh, Inderjit Singh, M Singh Mangat; 41.17).
4x400m: 1 Services A (V Sajin, Sumit Kumar, Manas Y, Arokya Rajeev; 3:06.63 NMR), 2 Manipur A, (Souvik Samanta, Nagaraj Kudubhavi, Vikas Singh, Jithu Baby; 3:09.57), 3 Railways A (Amit Singh, Prashanth, Neeraj Panwar, Jithin Paul; 3:12.65).
Pole vault: 1 Anuj (Haryana; 5.02), 2 J Preeth (Railways; 4.80m), 3 Bala Krishnan (Railways; 4.80m).
Women's:200m: 1 Dutee Chand (Railways; 23.69), 2 Srabani Nanda (Railways; 23.75), 3 Asha Roy (Railways; 24.71).
800m: 1 Tintu Luka (Railways; 2:00.56 NMR), 2 Gomathi (Tamil Nadu; 2:06.29), 3 Sipra Sarkar (West Bengal; 2:06.42).
10000m: 1 L Surya (Railways; 33:44.84), 2 Swati Gadhawe (Railways; 34:33.11), 3 Sanjeevni Jadhav (ONGC; 34:57.46).
4x100m: 1 Railways A (Himashree Roy, Merlin Joseph, Srabani Nanda, Dutee Chand; 45.92), 2 ONGC A (Shivangi Rawat, Mayookha Johny, M R Poovamma, S Bhaskar Ghule; 47.30); 3 Police A (Ramyakrishna T P, Ayana Thomas, Santhosh Kumar, Sini S; 48.33).
4x400m: 1 ONGC 'A' (Anu R, Jauna Murmu, Mandeep Kaur, M R Poovamma; 3:42.49), 2 West Bengal 'A' (Farhana Parvin, Tiasha Samadder, Lily Das, Debashree Majumdar; 3:47.29); 3 Railways A (Arpitha, Ammu K, Priyanka Mondal, Sini Jose; 3:48.89).
Discus throw: 1 Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (ONGC; 51.17), 2 Sandeep Kumari (Railways; 48.97m), 3 Himani (Police; 48.30).
Heptathlon: 1 Swapna Burman (ONGC; 5350), 2 Liksy Joseph (Railways; 5212) 3 Niksy Joseph (Railways; 5211).
Pole vault: 1 Mariya Jaison (Kerala; 3.70), 2 Sangeeta Kumari (Police; 3.40), 3 Krishna Rachan (Kerala; 3.40).
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