Split, Croatia – 4 Sep 2010

India’s ace 800m runner Tintu Luka improved the national record in women’s 800m as she posted a noteworthy 1:59.17 when finished fifth at the IAAF Continental Cup (formerly World Cup) at Split on Saturday evening.

Tintu, the prodigy of legendary Indian athlete P.T. Usha, led the race half-way as she did at the Diamond League meeting at Brussels couple of days ago before improving Shiny Wilson’s 15 year old national mark of 1:59.85 set during the SAF Games at Chennai in 1995.

The race was won by Kenyan athlete Janeth Jepkosgei in 1:57.88 while the next three spots were taken by Kenia Sinclair (Jamaica, 1:58.16), Mariya Savinova (Russia, 1:58.27) and Jennifer Meadows (Great Britain, 1:58.88) respectively. 

The best two athletes from each continent will be represented at the Continental Cup.  Apart from Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia-Pacific (consists of Asia and Oceania) takes part in the above meet.  Tintu represents Asia-Pacific at Split as the best athlete of the continent.  She rapidly improved her timings in the 800m this year en route to a podium finish at Commonwealth Games at New Delhi which is just a month away at the Indian capital.

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Delhi 31 August: Indian athletics team consisting of 90 athletes (46 Men and 44 Women, excluding Walkers) will compete in 45 Events to be held during the Commonwealth Games 2010.  The performances of the Athletes during from April 2010 till the Inter State Athletics Meet held at Patiala in the beginning of August have been considered for the selection.  In some of the Events, three athletes are selected to compete, but in other

Events only a token participation will be considered for the team. As there is more than one month to go for the Commonwealth Games, it is

likely that few more Athletes may be inducted and those who do not maintain their performances, will go out. The final names for the 20
KM Walk will be announced later.
The selection of the Athletes for all the four Relay events will be done after 15th September 2010 although the entries will be filled for
everyone.
The Selection Committee met on three occasions which was chaired by Mr. Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and attended by other members namely Mr. Adille Sumariwala, Ms. Anusuya Bai, Mr. Bahadur Singh, Mr. Gopal Saini, Mr. Parveen Jolly and Mr. Ravinder Chaudhry.

The Team Management has expressed great hope from this team and we are expecting best ever results in the Delhi Commonwealth Games. The Asian Games Team will be finalised after the Commonwealth Games on the basis of their performances.
 

Singapore  23 Aug:

India has won the second medal in Athletics in Youth Olympic Games in Singapore when Durgesh Kumar Pal of India won silver medal in the 400m Hurdles with a personal best timing of 50.81sec ( New Indian Youth Record) on August 23, 2010. Durgesh came very close to beat Cuban Lara Norge Sotomayor who won the gold in 50.69sec. From India, total 5 athletes were selected to participate in this first Youth Olympic Games.

Before this, Arjun has brought laurels for India by winning the Silver medal in Discus Throw event in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games on August 21, 2010.

Durgesh is improving day by day as he has created the New National Record in National Youth Athletics Championships by clocking 51.57s held at Coimbatore from 23rd to 25th April 2010 and now won the Silver medal at Singapore by clocking his personal best.

Durgesh Kumar Pal, 17 year old from Gazipur (Uttar Pradesh) started his athletic career in 2005 by joining Boys Sport Company in Pune since then he has graduated from middle distance to 400m and finally settling on 400m hurdles because of his good stride length which is suited for hurdles.

Indian discus thrower Arjun Kumar settled with a silver medal as he hurled the discus to 62.52m at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore on Sunday evening.

Arjun, who entered the fray with a world leading 64.09m registered back home at the Youth nationals this April, was less fortunate today as the disc started slipping out of his hands in the first two tries which touched 53.99 and 55.90m respectively.  South African Jacques du Plessis begun his venture with a 61.33 first try and went on to improve it in the next with 63.94m which fetch him the gold.  Arjun’s best of the day came on his third attempt and he left the competition with a failure on his fourth and final try,

Arjun was a bronze medalist in the Commonwealth Youth Games at Pune two years ago and went on to win the first Asian Youth Games in Singapore last year.

Indian hurdler Durgesh Kumar Pal is another medal contender here and is all set to make a podium finish on Tuesday’s final in boys’ 400m hurdles.

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /    

Patiala, 8 Aug 2010

It was a hot and humid evening on the final day of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here on Sunday.  The weather was sultry when the proceedings begun at 4:00 p.m. and everyone wonder if any good performances have come out from the athletes who assembled here with aspirations to gain a berth in the forthcoming Commonwealth Games at New Delhi and Asian Games at Guangzhou.

However once they get on to the track and field, the athletes did not fail to return with some outstanding marks.  Leading the brave-hearts was woman steeplechaser O.P. Jaisha.  An Asian Indoor champion over 1,500m and bronze medalist in 5,000m at the Doha Asiad, Jaisha took steeplechase only two years ago when she clinched the national title at Madurai Inter-State championships.   But no one predicted a national mark from her on Sunday except some senior Kerala state officials who put their hope on the tiny runner. 

With national record holder Sudha Singh also on the fray, it was difficult to consider Jaisha as a winner.  However, Jaisha ran shoulder to shoulder with Sudha till the last lap made her move on the bell and increased her tempo when she start approaching the final straight to become an eventual victor cap it with a new national mark 10:03.05.   Sudha was a distant second in 10:14.68.

Jauna Murmu (Orissa), who recently switched over from 400m flat to hurdles, was in a fine form and improved the meet mark with a time of 57.46 secs.  However it was a shade away from her personal best and Asian All-Star Meet winning mark of 57.39 secs.      

Asian champion Om Prakash Singh tossed the iron ball to a distance of 19.99m to prove his mettle in the men’s shot put in which Delhi boy Saurabh Vij put up an impressive show 19.91m for the silver.s  

Double for Sunil and Geetha

Haryana’s Sunil Kumar Singh and Andhra Pradesh sprinter Satti Geetha completes a double.  Geetha, a versatile 400m runner in the past and a regular member of national relay quartet in various global competions, concentrate in 200m at recent times having won silver medals in theFederation Cup at Ranchi and Open Nationals at Kochi this May.  After a surprise win over H.M. Jyothi of Karnataka in 100m on the opening day, Geetha comfortably got the top spot in 200m on Sunday evening clocking a modest 24.08 secs.

The Haryana lad Sunil Kumar Singh had similar victories in 5000m on the opening day before completing the double this morning with a victory over 10000m with a time of 29:55.22.

Kerala state retained the team championships with 8 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze medals, closely followed by hosts Punjab (7-4-5) and Haryana (7-3-5).

Pankaj Dimri of Uttarakhand for his performance in men's 800m (1:46.86) and Mandeep Kaur of Punjab for her mark of 52.13 in women 400m have adjudged the best athletes of the four-day national championships.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /  

Patiala, 7 Aug 2010

After seven years of rigorous training Siddhanth Thingalaya achieved what others in his age could not have dreamt off—the senior national title—as he put to shade the previous national record in men’s 110m hurdles with an amazing 13.81 secs clocking on the third day of National Inter-State Athletics Championships at NSNIS grounds, Moti Bagh.

 Siddhanth (19) already was in limelight after having won the inter-university title at Kochi, two years ago.  A second year B.Com student in Mithibai College, Mumbai, he went on to win a silver medal in the Asian junior championships at Hanoi (Vietnam) last month, before making an exposure trip to Moncton, Canada, for the World juniors. 

 He had a training stint at South Africa under the Mittal Champions Trust and clocked 14.31 secs at the high altitude Potchefstroom in March this year.    “For the past four months I have been receiving training from Mr. Ajit Kulkarni in Balewadi and travel all the way to Pune in weekends from my home at Andheri which helped me to great extent” Siddhanth revealed after the event as he improved his personal best in both heats (14.20) and finals (13.81) today.

 The coach praised his prodigy for dedication and suggests that he need specialized training from abroad to become a medalist in a global competition like the Olympic Games.  About his chances to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games, Siddhanth admits that he need to put more hard work and improve further in his timings.

 His margin of victory in today’s race was remarkably impressive as Tamil Nadu’s P. Muthusamy and Punjab’s Amandeep Singh took the next two spots with an identical 14.46 secs.     

After losing a podium finish in yesterday’s triple jump, Gayathri Govindaraj made a brave effort to win the women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 13.71 secs.  M.M. Anchu, representing Jharkhand, and national record holder Anuradha Biswal from Orissa have taken the next two places with timings of 14.13 and 14.33 secs respectively.

 Hosts Punjab received two more gold medals through Maha Singh in long jump (7.74m) and men’s 4x100m relay team (41.56 secs).  Tamil Nadu jumpers B. Azarudeen (7.64) and B. Baskar (7.59) had won the silver and bronze medals whereas the favourite Ankit Sharma fromMadhya Pradesh, who won the recent Asian All-Stars Meet at New Delhi, finished fifth with a performance of 7.51m.  Ankit got a bronze in the Asian junior meet this year with a personal best 7.77m leap. 

Sandeep of Haryana clinched the gold in men’s 1500m (3:43.39) from Kerala’s Chatholi Hamza (3:45.10).  The other prominent winners of the day are Kavya Muthanna of Karnataka in women’s high jump (1.80m), Gajanan Upadhyay of Jharkhand in men’s pole vault (4.90m) and S. Saraswathy of Tamil Nadu in women’s javelin throw (50.29m).

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Patiala, 6 Aug 2010

A downpour of rain, just prior to the start of evening session on the second day at national inter-state athletics championships here, did not deter the ambitions of athletes as they showered with several good performances on the auspicious Friday.

 The highlight of the evening came from women’s triple jump.  Kerala’s Mayookha Johny registered a new national record with a 13.68m hop, step and jump, which eclipsed Anju Bobby George’s eight year old national record by 1 cm.  Right from the first round Mayookha led the field with 13.32m and turned everyone’s attention towards her when she jumped to 13.65 on the second try, before achieving the record in her third attempt.

 Mayookha, aged 21 and employed as a Junior Accounts Officer with ONGC, was in delight after the event and revealed medal ambitions at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.  For the Asian Games at Guangzhou, she rated her chance as best in long jump.

 Started with a national junior title at Bangalore in 2006, Mayookha’s previous best came in the inter-university championships at Kochi two years ago where she jumped 13.56m.  Mayookha attributed her record to coach Jose Mathew.

 Punjab police athlete Kulwinder Kaur amazed with a 13.42m jump on her fifth try and pocketed the silver while M.A. Prajusha got the bronze in 13.28m.  Gayathri Govindaraj of Tamil Nadu, who won a silver medal in the Asian junior championships hardly a month ago at Hanoi (Vietnam) with a notable 13.58m leap and made the World junior meet finals in Moncton (Canada) two weeks later, could manage only 12.76m today and thus ended at fourth.

 Fast 800m run at nationals

The partially wet tracks on the NIS grounds saw the fastest timing by an Indian on home soil as Uttaranchal’s Pankaj Dimri emerged as a winner in a highly tactical men’s 800m race.  He missed Sriram Singh’s 34-year-old national mark (1:45.77) and the Indian all-comers’ record held by Kenyan Billy Konchellah (1:45.93) by a whisker as he returned a time of 1:46.26 here.  Tamil Nadu athlete Francis Sagayaraj came from behind to grab the silver in a noteworthy 1:46.77.  Manjit Singh from host state got the bronze in 1:47.24.  With the evening’s performances, Pankaj and Francis are now ranked second and fourth respectively in the Indian all-time lists. 

 The women’s 400m race saw an interesting dual between Mandeep Kaur (Punjab) and Juana Murmu (Orissa).  The Punjab girl, who represented India at the Beijing Olympic Games, clocked an impressive 52.13 secs with a strong finish to attain the top spot in the event. Karnataka’s A.C. Aswini pushed favourite Sini Jose (Kerala) to win the bronze medal. 

  / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Patiala, 5 Aug 2010

Hammer thrower Hardeep Kaur brought the first gold to hosts Punjab on the opening day of National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship here.  The 33-year-old Hardeep, working in Punjab Police, exhibits excellent athleticism when she set out the ball and chain to an amazing 61.21m and bettered her own meet mark of 60.79m.  However, it was just short of her national mark of 61.67m which she achieved while winning the open nationals eight years ago.

 Punjab women are dominating the above event ever since its inception in the Inter-State programme in 1995, with eight titles in 15 years.  The inaugural edition was won by Jagdeep Kaur at Chennai with a low profile 35.74m throw.  Surinderjit (1997 and 1999) and Rajwinder (2002) followed the tradition with better performances before Hardeep took the limelight in 2003 nationals at Jamsehdpur.  She followed her success story with wins in 2004 and 2006 (both at Chennai) before clinching her fourth title today. 

 Hardeep touched the 61m twice on her fourth (61.03) and fifth (61.21) attempts, but could not improve the eight year old national mark.  “I will give my best during the Commonwealth Games although the line-up will be tougher in New Delhi” she explained after the event.

 Harwant retains discus throw title

The top three Indian athletes in women’s  discus throw—Krishna Poonia, Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil—once again lined up on the grounds of Asia’s prestigious sports institution at Moti Bagh.   Krishna Poonia opened with a 60.03m throw on her first try.  However Harwant gained control over the event from the second round and become a clear victor with a 60.66m throw achieved in the third attempt.  Krishna could manage only 60.44m for the silver while the national record holder and former World junior bronze medalist Seema Antil settled with a bronze medal (56.06m).

 Nagaraj won dead-heat, Geetha upstaged Jyothi in sprints

 Karnataka’s B.G. Nagaraj locked-in with Krishna Rane of Maharashtra as the duo crossed the finish-line together in men’s 100m.  Nagaraj declared winner after reading the photo-finish.  Both the athletes clocked an identical 10.55 secs.    Kerala’s Sameermon become a victim as a loosely fixed starting block came out and stumbled down the athlete and his hope to win a medal in the final.

 In what considered be a biggest upset of the day, Satti Geetha of Andhra Pradesh pushed favourite H.M. Jyothi (Karnataka) to the second spot in the women’s race 11.80 secs to 11.84.

 In the absence of Renjith Maheswary, the men’s triple jump event was won by Amarjeet Singh.

Patiala, 4 August 2010

New Delhi, India – 30 July 2010

 Guzel Khubbieva of Uzbekistan outsprinted opposition, as she spurt in to front from blocks, to become the fastest woman of the two day 3rdAsian All-Star Athletics Meet which concluded on Friday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.  A familiar face with the Indian fans, Khubbieva is the reigning Asian Games champion and multiple medalist in the Asian Grand Prix series. 

 On the contrary Sri Lankan star Shehan Abeypitiyage, after initial lead in the first half, had to fight it out with Hong Kong’s Tsui Chi Ho in the men’s 100m.  Tsui, who clocked a national best 10.28 secs this May, looked as winner from the stands.  A scrutiny of photo-finish favoured the Sri Lankan 10.49 to 10.50.    

 Dusanova rise to further height

 Uzbekistan’s Nadezhda Dusanova delivered the best performance of the day by improving her continental leading mark to 1.95m to win the women’s high jump.   Her teammate Svetlana Radzivil, who scaled 1.93m in the last month’s Asian Grand Prix at Bangalore, could manage only 1.88m today and thus had to be settled with a bronze.  The silver medal in this event went to Anna Ustinova of Kazakhstan in 1.93m. 

 Field day for Indian throwers

 Krishna Poonia, ranked tenth in the World, proved the training she had in the United States under Olympian Mac Wilkins highly beneficial when she hurled the discus beyond 60m twice on the evening.  As expected it was a clean sweep for Indians with Harwant Kaur (58.73) and Seema Antil (54.21) took the next two spots beyond Poonia who achieved 60.93m for the gold. 

 Om Prakash Singh, the basketball player turned athlete, missed out the 20m mark once again but heaved the iron ball to 19.74m to become a clear winner here.   His teammate Saurabh Vij got the silver medal with a 19.09m throw while Iran’s Nikfar Amin, who achieved a season leading 19.70m at Bangalore last month, settled with a bronze medal as his day’s best throw measured only to 18.65m. 

 Juana captured the sheen in hurdles

 Indian 400m hurdler Joseph G. Abraham received a shock defeat in the hands of Japan’s Takayuki Koike as he slowed down at the last hurdle. Koike clinched the gold at 50.08 secs, while the Indian clocked a distant 50.87s for the silver. 

 Juana Murmu, who recently switched to hurdles, delivered a sterling performance on Friday evening as she outlived favourite Natalya Asanova of Uzbekistan to win the event in 57.39 secs. 

 Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Indika Wijekoon and Indian Sinimole Paulose showed a brilliant ‘come-back’ as they won the metric mile among the men and women respectively as Sandeep Batham of India took the men’s 5000m gold in a moderate time.

 The hosts India took half of the medals that were in stake in the two day event as they garnered an amazing 12 gold, 9 silver and 10 bronze medals to top the field.

 Ram. Murali Krishnan

 Results:

 MEN:

100m (-0.7): 1. Shehan Abeypitiyage SRI 10.49, 2. Tsui Chi Ho HKG 10.50, 3. Chun Ho Lai HKG 10.63;

1,500m: 1. Chaminda Indika Wijekoon SRI 3:43.88, 2. Artyom Kossininov KAZ 3:44.97, 3. Chaitoli Hamza IND 3:48.03;

5,000m: 1. Sandeep Batham IND 14:15.50, 2. Ajay Kumar Patel IND 14:17.72, 3. Agus Parayogo INA 14:22.60;

400m Hurdles: 1. Takayuki Koike JPN 50.08, 2. Joseph G. Abraham IND 50.87, 3. Avin A. Thomas IND 50.89;

Triple Jump: 1. Renjith Maheswary IND 16.74 (1.1), 2. Yevgeniy Ektov KAZ 16.69 (0.7), 3. Roman Valiyev KAZ 16.67 (0.8);

Shot Put: 1. Om Prakash IND 19.74, 2. Saurabh Vij IND 19.09, 3. Amin Nikfar IRI 18.65;

 WOMEN:

100 (-0.5): 1. Guzel Khubbieva UZB 11.63, 2. Maki Wada JPN 11.87, 3. Yulia Gavrilova KAZ 11.91;

1500m: 1. Sinimole Paulose IND 4:19.00, 2. Ekaterina Tunguskova UZB 4:26.01, 3. Javeri Leila Ebrahimimo IRI 4:34.11;

400m Hurdles: 1. Juana Murmu IND 57.39, 2. Natalya Asanova UZB 59.17, 3. Thi Bac Nguyen VIE 60.64;

High Jump: 1. Nadezhda Dusanova UZB 1.95, 2. Anna Ustinova KAZ 1.93, 3. Svetlana Radzivil UZB 1.88;

Triple Jump: 1. Anna Bodorenko KAZ 13.50, 2. Aleksandra Kotlyarova UZB 13.49, 3. M.A. Prajusha IND 13.30;

Discus Throw: 1. Krishna Poonia IND 60.93, 2. Harwant Kaur IND 58.73, 3. Seema Antil IND 54.21;

New Delhi, India – 29 July 2010

Blessed with a shower of rain at the beginning of competition, the third edition of Asian All-Star Athletics Meet witnessed outstanding performances by women athletes of India on the opening day.

Running on the newly laid synthetic track, Indian half-miler Tintu Luka outclassed the little opposition from no less a person than teammate Sinimol Paulose.  A fast 58 seconds clocking on the first lap showed the fifteen-year-old national record by Shiny Wilson (1:59.85) is on threat. However, with no one to push her, the prodigy of P.T. Usha, had to run a solo race and slowed down at the last 200m thus ended her campaign with a personal best 2:01.24 at the end. 

 On the far side of the stadium, the women long jumpers received cheer from a large number of school children who assembled to witness the event.   The pre-event favourite Yulia Tarasova, seventh in this year’s World Indoor championships at Doha and a multi-event specialist, could not find her rhythm and hence managed only a silver medal with 6.49m jump on her fifth try.  The upcoming Indian jumper Mayookha Johny on the other hand was already leading the fray with her personal best 6.64m, registered on her fourth try, and opted to skip the last two as she was made sure of the gold. Her teammate M.A. Prajusha took the bronze (6.30m).  With today’s performance, Mayookha currently ranked sixth among the athletes from commonwealth nations and is all set to make a podium finish in the Commonwealth Games to be held in the same venue in October this year.    

 Iranian quarter-milers took the first two spots in the men’s 400m as Sajjad Hashemi took the top spot followed by countryman Reza Bouazar.  The women’s race saw the come back of Mandeep Kaur as she outran the favourite Kazakh runner Yulia Gavrilova.   Asian champion Manjula Kumara Wijesekara was the notable winner in men’s high jump.

 As expected Indonesian Jumras Rittidet had won the men’s 110m hurdles while Anastasiya Soprunova of Kazakhstan clinched the women’s 100m hurdled gold.  India’s Gayathry Govindaraj, who showed consistent win at the continental scene recently, took the silver in the women’s race.

 The women’s 5,000m was a three horse race.  Indonesia’s SEA Games double gold medalist Trianingsih, who interchanged the lead with Kazakhstan’s Sitora Khamidova, pulled up when two laps to go and won the event with a moderate 16:24.12 clocking.

 Coming back to the field, Indian junior Ankit Sharma surprised his senior teammates Maha Singh and Harikrishnan to win the gold medal in the men’s long jump wherein the hosts made a clean sweep.  Ankit was credited with a personal best 7.77m while winning the bronze medal in the Asian junior championships at Hanoi, Vietnam, at the beginning of this month. 

 As much as 250 athletes from seventeen nations are taking part in the two day meet.  A total prize money of USD 70,000 are to be distributed amongst the winners of the first three places in the above meet.

 Earlier the meet was inaugurated by Rt.Hon. Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sports, United Kingdom in the evening in the presence of Suresh Kalmadi, President, Asian Athletics Association and Commonwealth Games Organising Committee as well asLord Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Olympics Organising Committee.

(Ram. Murali Krishnan)

July 20, 2010: Billed as a ‘test event’ in athletics for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, the Asian All-Star Athletics competition is expected to provide a serene atmosphere for everyone concerned to prove their mettle at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS). The two day contest set for July 29 and 30 at the newly furbished tracks on the Indian capital will witness a flurry of star athletes making their strides for the first time since its renovation. 
Originally built for the 1982 Asian Games, the state-of-the-art JNS hosts the athletics completion besides opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games. The Asian All-Star Athletics will offer a chance, perhaps the only time before the CWG, to test various area of organization prior to the mega sporting extravaganza in October. As much as 250 technical officials and hundreds of volunteers besides scores of other functional area staff will make sure that every area of competition work perfectly.
Mixture of past and future champs
First held in 2004 at Singapore, the Asian All-Star athletics aims to tap new potential among the juniors while the cream of continental champions and medalists had invited to take part. The second edition of the competition was held at Bhopal, two years ago. At least seven champions from Bhopal have figured on the Delhi start-list. This apart, many Asian Games and continental (senior and junior) championship medalists are also on the fray for a podium finish in the next week’s competition.
Strong field in throws
Reigning Asian champion Ehsan Hadadi stood tall and top among the list of participants. The 25 year old Iranian, who holds the continental record of 69.32m and was a world junior champion in 2004, recently recorded a season’s best of 68.45m in Tehran. Vikas Gowda, the Indian thrower living in United States, making a come back with a performance of 63.22m.  On the women’s side, Indian throwers are a cut above the rest with Krishna Poonia leading the challenge with a season leading 61.64m recorded in USA while went through a training-cum-competition stint under the watchful eyes of former Olympian Mac Wilkins.

Om Prakash Singh, the current Asian champion, led the list in men’s shot put along with teammates Satyendra Singh and Saurabh Vij. Amin Nikfar from Iran, the Asian Indoor Games victor, together with Grigoriy Kamulya of Uzbekistan is expected to provide the required challenge to the Indians. Iran also fields a strong athlete in women’s shot put. Leyla Rajabi, formerly known as Tatsiana Ilyuschanka of Belarus, brought her adopted country an Asian indoor gold this year. She is a notable athlete to watch as also Yang Yanbo and Liu Jing of China on the shot put circle.
Triple jumpers to the fore
The triple jumpers are ready to grab the attention of fans in both men and women divisions. Renjith Maheswary, the former asian champion would log horn with Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniy Ektov, the bronze medalist in last year’s asian championships at Guangzhou and defending Asian all-star victor in Bhopal. Among women, Alexandra Kotlyarova—who recorded a personal best 14.08m while winning this year’s Asian Grand Prix at Bangalore—is all set to boost Gayathry Govindaraj, the double silver medalist in Commonwealth Youth Games at Pune, two years ago. Gayathry registered 13.58m earlier this month when taking a silver medal in the Asian junior championships at Hanoi, which incidentally the second best ever by an Indian. However she missed a golden chance in 100m hurdles at the Vietnamese capital due to a false start. 

Joseph Abraham, the World championship semi-finalist in 400m hurdles at Osaka in 2007, unbeaten in Asian Grand Prix this year is aiming high with better marks at Delhi.

The women’s long jump will be another attraction as multi-event specialist Yulia Tarasova of Uzbekistan, Bhopal champion Priyadarshini of Sri Lanka and the trio of Indian jumpers—M A Prajusha, Mayookha Johny and Reshmi Bose—are all set to make it a memorable contest to remember.
Half-milers steady on tracks
World University Games champion Sajad Moradi, who made another clean sweep of medals in the three-leg Asian Grand Prix on Indian soil earlier this year, is set to rule the tracks once again. Among women, Tintu Luka—the prodigy of legendary Indian sprinter P.T. Usha—is gearing up to set aside the challenge from teammate Sushma Devi and Ayako Jinnouchi of Japan.

The men’s 100m sprint will have the entire podium finishers from 2008 Asian junior championships—Lai Chun Ho and Tsui Chi Ho of Hong Kong and Shehan Abeypitiyage of Sri Lanka. However, the women’s race will have higher standard as both Asian Games gold medalist Guzel Khubbieve of Uzbekistan and Yulia Gavrilova of Kazakhstan—the double gold medalist in the Asian junior championships this year will be challenged by H.M. Jyothi, the bronze medalist in last year’s Asian meet at Guangzhou and winner of 2008 edition of the Asian All-Star meet.

Athletes from about seventeen asian nations are taking part in the two day competitions. (Ram. Murali Krishnan)