49^th Indian National Open Athletics Championship

National Open Athletics Championship concludes

Indian Railways romp home to retain overall title, make it five-in-a-row

Monday, October 12, 2009 09:51:43 AM, Pervez Bari

Bhopal: It was Indian Railways all the way as they swept all the titles that were at stake to make it five-in-a-row when they retained the overall championship title for the fifth consecutive year. Railways emerged overall champions in the four-day 49th Indian National Open Athletics Championship together with being declared champions in both men and women categories also here on Friday.

Railways athletes showed their prowess and agility to clinch the maximum number of gold medals and took their overall medals haul to 57 (22 Gold, 21 Silver & 14 Bronze).

Despite winning the overall championship for the fifth consecutive year, decreasing the medal tally may worry Railways whose medal haul was reduced to 57 in this championship as in the last edition held in Kochi in 2008 it was 60 medals while it was 76 in 2007 held at Jamshedpur. The gold medal haul of Railways has also taken a further dip. While the gold medal tally in 2007 was 29, it was reduced to 27 in 2008 and now 22 in 2009.

Meanwhile, in the championship here Services were placed in the second spot with a total of 18 medals including 6 gold, 6 silver & 6 bronze while Kerala finished third with 4 gold, four silver and five bronze.

Hosts Madhya Pradesh finished 12th in the overall medal tally with only a silver and bronze medal each. Madhya Pradesh Industries Minister Kailash Vijayvargy presented the trophies to the winners and runners-up teams at the closing ceremony.

In the men category of the championship Railways won 11 gold, as many silver and 4 bronze medals. Services collected six gold and as many silver and bronze medals. Kerala bagged 2 gold and 1 bronze medal and stood 3rd.

While in the women’s category also Railways topped with 11 gold, 10 silver and as many bronze medals. Kerala gained the second spot with 2 gold, 4 silver and as many bronze medals. Andhra Pradesh stood third with 2 gold, as many as silver and bronze medals.

Ranjith M. of Indian Railways was adjudged the best athlete in male section. He won gold medal in Triple Jump (16.68 metres) and also set a new meet record. The athlete secured 1121 points during the championship. While Tintu Luka was declared the best female athlete. Favourite student of yesteryear sprint queen P. T. Usha. The athlete won gold in 800 metres race and 4x400 metres relay. She secured 1091 points in the championship.

Distance runner Surender Singh of Uttarakhand completed his commendable double by winning men's energy-consuming 10,000 metres final with a timing of 29:19.40s. He had already bagged the 5000 meters gold on day one. Sandeep of Railways bagged the silver of this event by clocking 30:03.66s and BC Tilak of Services 30:05.14s won the bronze.

Services men clinched all the three gold, silver and bronze medals in 1500 metres race. In the absence of Ravinder of Delhi, C. Hamza of Services surfaced easy winner of the 1500 metres. Hamza clocked 3:42.87s ahead of his teammates E. Benazeer (3:48.02) & Rajan KK (3:48.94) who secured the silver & bronze respectively.

While Railway women bagged all the medals of 1500 metres, when Sushma Devi clinched gold by clocking 4:22.86s followed by Bindu S.R. 4:24.08 & Priyanka Patel 4:25.70s. While

The gold of 10,000 metres women came with a comfortable win for the Kavita Raut who finished the race by clocking 33:57.40s. Her arch rival Preeti L. Rao was far behind to win silver medal in 36:06.86s. Lalita Babar took the bronze for Railways with 37:20.01s.

pervezbari@eth.net

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