In a disastrous turn of events, Kerala literally threw away the gold medal in men’s 4x400m relay at the National Inter-State Athletic Championship on Friday.
Team Kerala’s K Mohammed, who was running the last leg, dropped his baton 50m before the finish line and earned a disqualification from the race. Jharkhand made the most of this opportunity and finished winners.
The girls from Kerala made up for the loss. They clocked an impressive 3:40.74s, very close to breaking the meet record. Haryana (3:45.53) and Tamil Nadu finished second and third (3:52.42), respectively.
Triple Jumper, Renjith Maheshwari, came up with an effort of 16.98m to bag the gold. This was his best jump since the 2010 Commonwealth games. He also qualified for the World Championship. “I am happy with my performance, though I had aimed for 17m but fell short of it,” said Renjith. He was all praise for Punjab’s Arpinder Singh. “This lad is capable of winning medals at international events. We should watch out for him.”
Preeja Sreedharan finally struck form when she won the 10,000m title. Earlier in the competition, she had won silver in the 5000m, but it was nowhere close to her best. This was the year’s first major competition for Preeja. “I am coming from an injury, so it will take me some time to return to form,” said Preeja.
In Heptathalon, Sushmita Singha Roy faced no difficulty in bagging the gold. She finished with 5164 points.
The team championship went to Kerala, followed by Tamil Nadu at the second spot. There was a gap of 25 points between the winners and the runner-up. Renjith and Sudha Singh won the Best Athlete award.
