The wait was worth it. After a long delay of two hours, the comeback athlete Sahana Kumari of Karnataka scaled to a new height of 1.92 metres in the women’s high jump to book a ticket to London Olympics on the first day of the four-day 52nd National inter-state senior athletic championship at GMC Balayogi Stadium on Saturday.
The 31-year-old Kumari, mother of seven-year-old daughter Pavana, touched the ‘B’ mark and in the process beat the national record of Bobby Aloysius of 1.91 metres set in June 2002. She became the 14th athlete to qualify for the London Games.
Despite the delay, Kumari was a focused athlete today. “I knew I could clear 1.92 metres because I had good training but the delay did upset me. But once my coach gave me the confidence, I could go through the motions,’’ she said.
Earlier, Local girl Satti Geetha brought cheers to the home-crowd this evening as she sprinted to victory in the women’s 100 metres event. The 28-year-old Geetha, a member of Doha Asiad six years ago, pulled away from the rest of the athletes to win flat 12 seconds. The AP girl, who switched over from 400 metres to the sprint, upstaged defending champion MM Anchu (Kerala), who finished second (12.04 seconds). Pre-race favourite Manisha of Haryana had disqualified for a false start.
However, there was cloud of controversy over the men’s 100 metres winner Dharambir Singh. The 21-year—old Haryana sprinter after winning in 10.51 seconds disappeared from the field and did not go for dope test. “The officials waited for a long time. We will give the report,’’ said an official.
Results:
Men: Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh (Punjab) 15.90m, 2. Saurabh (UP) 15.79m, 3.
Rajasekhar (TN) 15.69m.
Discus throw: 1. Dharam Raj (MP) 51.62s, 2. Sushil Kumar (UP) 50.61m. 3. Binoy CG
(Kerala) 49.39m.
5,000m: 1. Indrajeet Patel (UP) 14:21.44s, 2. Man Singh (Delhi) 14:24.95s, 3. Nitinender Singh (Uttarkhand) 14:25.36s.
100m: 1. Dharambir (Har) 10.51s, 2. Md Abdul Qureshi (AP) 10.59s, 3. Krishna Kumar
(Mah) 10.60s.
Women: 5000: 1. Sahnara Khatun (Bengal) 17:58.56s, 2. Athre Monika (Mah) 18:02.78s, 3. Archana Pal (UP) 18:09.51s.
100m: 1: Satti Geeta (AP) 12.00s, 2. MM Anchu (Ker) 12.18s, 3. Ruma Sarkar (Beng)
12.37s.
Pole vault: 1. Surekha (TN) 3.60m, 2. SV Khyatti (Kar) 3.50m, 3. R Remya (Ker) 3.40m.
High jump: 1. Sahana Kumari (Kar) 1.92 m, 2. Mallika Mondal (Beng) 1.79m, 3. NK Siji (Ker) 1.76m.
Javelin throw: 1. Anu Rani (UP) 53.95m, 2. Suman Devi (UP) 53.61m, 3. Rupinder Kaur
(Pun) 47.01 m.