RANCHI: The result of the men's 10,000m race walk final was put on hold due to a protest being submitted to a jury by second-placed Sandeep Kumar on Day 2 of the National Senior Athletics Federation competition at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium here on Saturday.
The final, which was the first event of the day, saw 18-year-old Uttar Pradesh athlete Nitin Gupta finish first, followed by two-time Olympian and CWG medallist Sandeep, who was representing Haryana.
As of late evening, the final result was yet to be officially declared.
Kumar, 40, alleged that Gupta was offered water more than once at different parts of the course, rather than taking it from the designated water point. There are also allegations of gaining advantage by having three athletes – who later did not finish the race – block Kumar from gaining ground over Nitin.
PB for Krishna
Chennai's Krishna Jayasankar shone at the women's shot put final, throwing a personal best mark of 17.35m. However, she missed out on the Commonwealth Games qualification mark by 30 centimetres. Earlier, on Day 1, Krishna had won bronze in the women's discus throw final with a mark of 55.00m.
Pole vault woes
The pole vault event in the men's decathlon, which commenced at 9.40 am, ended by 1.15 pm. Generally a pole vault final takes around two hours, but due to outdated equipment, the session dragged on for over three hours in extreme heat.
Gokul KR of the Navy finished on top with a mark of 4.40m. National Record holder in decathlon Tejaswin Shankar finished fourth, with a mark of 4.20m.
One of the reasons why it dragged on was because of the time-consuming method in setting the bar. In an era where pole vault bars are set within minutes, officials here were seen measuring the mark on a tape. They could be seen matching the tape with the bar and adjusting the bar holders accordingly. To add to their woes, the officials had to keep adjusting the marks for different athletes. This made measuring the mark quite and placing the bar a tedious job.
This delay continued in the women's pole vault final, but this time it was slightly better. Milber Russel, pole vault coach, felt that this would impact pole vaulters' momentum. "In international events, it takes only a switch to change the mark and adjust the bar," he said.
With the men's pole vault final taking place on Sunday, athletes and coaches would be hopeful that this would not impact them adversely.
