Lack of participation from many and absence of urgency among those who did marked the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix here on Friday with the third Olympic qualification event within 10 days producing below par results.
No new marks or qualifying standards were expected to be achieved at the event and none materialised though there were some encouraging signs. The biggest of them was Dutee Chand’s timing of 13.37 seconds to win the 100m.
Even though it was 0.05 seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark, Dutee’s performance — her third successive sub 13.4 timing — proved the sprinter was improving in her consistency. Archrival Srabani Nanda, was pushed to third spot with HM Jothi completing the predictable triad.
Among the men, Abdul Najeeb Qureshi ran 10.574 seconds to win by five-thousandth of a second ahead of Krishnakumar Mane (10.579), proving that, in the absence of an unfit Amiya Kumar Maliick, the 28-year old National record holder can still match much younger competitors, though that doesn’t speak too highly of the current Indian crop.
In the 400m men’s event, only four lined up and Kunhu Mohammed faltered at the starting block. Arokia Rajiv and Mohammed Anas, the two expected to provide some excitement, did not participate despite being present. While L. Suriya ran with the men in the 5000m in the absence of any competitor (the IAAF rules allow for mixed entries in the case of 5000m and above track events if there are insufficient participants).
Most events saw the bare minimum of three participants and none pushing the envelope hard enough. Ankit Sharma jumped to 7.93m in long jump and though it is creditable that he has managed to keep his standards above 7.90 mark, it is time he and K. Premkumar – the national record holder and the only other current Indian jumper with an over-eight metre jump against his name – did more.
The results: Men: 100m: Md. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (ONGC, 10.574s), Krishnakumar Satish Rane (Maharashtra, 10.579s), Jyotisankar Debnath (Bihar, 10.62s); 400m: Sumit Kumar (Army, 47.41s), Jithin Paul (Kerala, 47.53s), Naagraaj (Railways, 48.14s); 1500m: Ajay Kumar Saroj (ONGC, 3:46:73), Jinson Johnson (Kerala, 3:47:39), Rahul (Delhi, 3:51:64); 5000m: Lakshmanan G. (Tamil Nadu, 14:12:18), Md. Yunus Mohammed (Uttar Pradesh, 14:14:78), Man Singh (Uttarakhand, 14:46:57).
400m hurdles DNS; Long Jump: Ankit Sharma (Haryana, 7.93m), Prem Kumar Kumaravel (Tamil Nadu, 7.80m), Samsheer S E (Karnataka, 7.39m); Triple Jump: Arpinder Singh (ONGC, 15.93m), Arivu Selvam (Tamil Nadu, 15.888m), Karthik U (Air Force, 15.85m); Javelin: Shivpal Singh (Air Force, 79.77m), Samarjeet Singh (ONGC, 73.28m), Davinder Singh (Punjab, 72.30m); Discus : Kirpal Singh (ONGC, 59.29m), Dharamraj (SSCB, 57.87m), Arjun (RSPB, 56.80m); Shot Put: Tejinderpal Singh (ONGC, 19.69m), Jasdeep Singh (Punjab, 18.56m, Om Prakash Singh (Haryana, 18.37m).
Women: 100m: Dutee Chand (Odisha, 11.37s), H.M. Jothi (Canara Bank, 11.57s), Srabani Nanda (Odisha, 11.60s).
400m: M.R. Poovamma (ONGC, 52.67s), Anilda Thomas (Kerala, 53.10s), Santosh Kumari (CRPF, 54.06s); 1500m DNS; 5000m: L. Suriya (Tamil Nadu, 15:49:97); Long Jump: DNS; Triple Jump: Shilpa Chacko (Kerala, 13.24m), Sheena N V (Kerala, 13.10m), Pooja Jangra (Delhi, 11.29m); Javelin : Annu Rani (UP, 56.77m), Suman Devi (UP, 56.61m), Poonam Rani (Haryana, 48.84m); Discus: Krishna Poonia (Haryana, 56.02m), Navjeet Kaur (ONGC, 54.03m), Parmila (Rajasthan, 51.19m).
