Harshith leaps to high jump gold

 After sailing over the bar at 2.16 metres, S Harshith let out a guttural scream that echoed around the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. All his fears, frustrations and disappointments were expelled through that volatile expression as the Karnataka high jumper picked up his maiden gold medal at the Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Sunday.

Harshith’s performance wasn’t the best of his career. It was well below his capabilities even. But for an athlete who has been battling hard to find the right priorities in life, it was perhaps a message he was waiting to receive, on a dull third day of the competition.
The 21-year-old, a sixth-semester civil engineering student at the East West Institute of Technology in Bengaluru, had just finished his exams and with very little training under his belt, he expected nothing but a rough flight here. A troublesome tummy compounded his worries.

Fighting hard, Harshith overcame those issues, egged on by his father and uncle. Starting at 2.00 metres, he stuttered once at 2.09 before going over at 2.13 and 2.16 in his first attempts. Jagdeep Singh of Punjab breathed down his neck, clearing all his marks in the first chance itself. But at 2.16, he failed once, elevating the Karnataka jumper to the top spot. Both the jumpers failed at 2.19 and the gold, a reward for perseverance, was in Harshith’s lap. His stop-start career with no continuity in training now has the sheen of gold from three of the four senior national meets in the past one year – the Open Nationals in 2014, Federation Cup in May and the Inter-State crown.

“I missed out at the National Games,” said Harshith with a tinge of regret, after completing a high jump double for Karnataka, after Sahana Kumari’s triumph on Saturday . “It was tough here, I was worried as I couldn’t do much training but in the end, I just managed to pull through,” added Harshith, who has a best of 2.17 metres. He also has a 2.20M leap to his credit at the State trials.

There were no performances of note elsewhere to hold the fans’ attention on a cloudy evening, with field events dominating the programme. M A Prajusha bounced back from a disappointing display in long jump, with gold in triple jump at 13.33 metres while in discus throw, Haryana’s Arjun picked up the top medal with a heave of 57.14 metres. Asian Games bronze medallist in javelin throw, Annu Rani of Uttar Pradesh, was also a comfortable winner at 54.67 metres.

As dusk descended and lights came on, Dutee Chand anchored Odisha to the gold medal in the 4x100M relay before suffering bruises in a fall after the finish line.

In the morning, fancied athletes qualified for the semifinals of the 400M. Crashing out was Sini Jose, making her comeback after her doping ban. She timed 56.89 to finish sixth in her heat.

Results: Men: 3000M steeplechase: Naveen (Haryana) 8:47.47, 1; Jaiveer (Haryana) 8:48.23, 2; Sachin Patil (Maharashtra) 8:52.61, 3.

High jump: Harshith S (Karnataka) 2.16 metres, 1; Jagdeep Singh (Punjab) 2.16, 2; Ajay Kumar (Haryana) 2.09, 3.

Discus throw: Arjun (Haryana) 57.14 metres, 1; Dharamraj Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 56.15, 2; Kirpal Singh (Punjab) 53.83, 3.

20Km walk: Devender Singh (Haryana) 1:26:04.40, 1; Ganapathy (Tamil Nadu) 1:27:06.40, 2; Babubhai Panocha (Gujarat) 1:28:00.30, 3.

4x100M relay: Tamil Nadu (Prem Kumar, Vijayakumar M, Sathiyaselan M, V Muthukumaran) 40.83 seconds, 1; Kerala 40.89, 2; Haryana 41.08, 3.

Women: 3000M steeplechase: S Manish (Maharashtra) 10:55.34, 1; Nandini Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) 11:07.09, 2; Monika Fulchand (Maharashtra) 11:09.24, 3.

Pole vault: Kiranbir Kaur (Punjab) 3.50 metres, 1; Dija K C (Maharashtra) 3.40, 2; Krishna Rachan (Kerala) 3.40, 3.

Triple jump: M A Prajusha (Kerala) 13.33 metres, 1; Amita Baby (Chhatisgarh) 12.92, 2; Bhairabi Roy (Bengal) 12.79, 3.

Javelin throw: Annu Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 54.67 metres, 1; Pushpa Jakhar (Haryana) 49.69, 2; Shahejahani (Karnataka) 48.72, 3.

4x100M relay: Odisha (Purnima Hembram, Jauna Murmu, Srabani Nanda, Dutee Chand) 46.20 seconds, 1; Kerala 47.47, 2; Maharashtra 47.57, 3.