RANCHI: The men’s 10,000 metre final, which started as early as 5.40 am on Day 1 of the Senior National Athletics Federation competition on Friday, did not end with an athlete collapsing at the finish line at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium. Shivaji M of Karnataka, who had a good start and was set to finish first before being overtaken in the final 100 metres, was seen taken away by officials and coaches. Initially, a couple of officials tried to get him from the track as other athletes were finishing.
However, he could not stand on his own. Then, a few coaches and other officials rushed to help him cross the track.
To make his day worse, Shivaji was disqualified for lane and inside border infringements. His statemate from Karnataka Shailesh Kushwaha finished second (29:57.56s) behind Deepak Bhat of Uttarakhand (29:42:93s).
Vibhaskar's surprise
On a hot, humid morning, Bihar’s sprinter Vibhaskar Kumar took everyone by surprise in the heats of the men’s 100m event at the Senior National Federation competition. With a 10.36 second mark, the 22-year-old breached the qualification mark (10.52 seconds) for the inaugural Asian U23 Championships in China in July.
He ran faster than National record holder Animesh Kujur, who clocked 10.40 seconds in the heats. Kujur, Kumar and Gurindervir Singh (10.42s) will be amongst the athletes taking part in the semi-finals later in the day.
His personal best before this meet was at 10.57 seconds at the Indian Open Athletics series -- 1 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru last month.
“I trained a lot during the off-season. Happy to have seen it come to life,” Kumar said after the run.
Training under coach Manoj Logaraj, the athlete from Sonepur in Saran district of Bihar started off as a sprinter. “I started off when I was thirteen. I moved to Hyderabad to live with my uncle. There, I studied and took part in school-level competitions till 2019,” he said. However, a hamstring injury in the same year was a setback. “I recovered the next year, but I could not find events to participate in due to COVID,” he said. After two years in Tamil Nadu, Kumar now trains in Bengaluru.