Tamil Nadu’s L. Suriya clinched the honours in the women’s 10,000m, clocking 33:27.01 in the 56th National inter-State athletics meet at the GMC Balayogi Stadium here on Tuesday. Maharashtra’s Swati Gadhave (33:45.40) and her State-mate Sanjivani Jadavi (33:54.77) finished second and third respectively.
However, this was well below the 25-year-old Suriya’s best timing which she set in Guwahati (32:29.86) on her way to a golden double in the 5,000 and 10,000m events.
For the record, the Rio Olympics qualifying mark is 32:15.00 in this event.
“I had problem with my left knee after I had a fall yesterday and could not give my best,” a visibly disappointed gold medallist said later. “I really trained hard but could not match the expectations here. I don’t want to blame anything else for this. But I am terribly disappointed,” she added.
In the men’s 5,000m, G. Lakshmanan of Tamil Nadu clocked 14:06.04 to win the gold (Rio qualifying mark: 13:25.00), an effort that was well below his personal best of 13:36.62 which fetched him a bronze in last year’s Asian Championship in Wuhan (China). However, this is his third gold in the inter-State championship 5,000m events after his triumph in the 2013 and 2015 editions.
In the women’s long jump, V. Neena of Kerala notched up her personal best with an effort of 6.45m which bettered her previous best of 6.39 in the last Kerala National Games.
In a way, it was also some sort of revenge for Neena, who not only defended her title here but got the better of her Statemate M.A. Prajusha, who pipped the former to win the gold in the previous two meets — Fed Cup and the Grand Prix this April.
The results (all finals):Women: 10,000m: 1. L. Suriya (Tamil Nadu) 33:27.01, 2. Swati Ghadave (Maha) 33:45.40, 3. Sanjivani Jadavi (Maha) 33:54.77. Long jump: 1. V. Neena (Ker) 6.45m, 2. M.A. Prajusha (Ker) 6.29, 3. Shradhha Ghule (Maha) 5.98.
Shot put: 1. Manpreet Kaur (Pjb) 16.78m, 2. Navjeet Kaur (Pjb) 15.36, 3. Sonal Goyal (Del) 13.43.
Hammer: 1. Sarita Prakash (UP) 61.19m, 2. Reena (Har) 54.23, 3. Athira Muralidi (Ker) 48.52.
Men: 5,000m: 1. G. Lakshmanan (TN) 14:06.04, 2. Suresh Kumar Patel (UP) 14:11.45, 3. Yunus Mohammed (UP) 14:24.07.
