BHUBANESWAR 30-Apr-2016
Odisha competitors achieved impressive success, bagging a total of seven medals in the 20th Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championship, held at J N Stadium in New Delhi from April 28 to 30. Medals included four gold, two silver and one bronze.
Women sprinters Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda captured one gold and one silver each. Dutee smashed the 16-year-old national record in 100 metre dash, clocking 11.33 seconds on the opening day of the three-day meet. Rachita Panda (Mistry) had set the previsous National record at Trivandrum in the year 2000, taking 11.38 seconds. Srabani made it one-two for Odisha, winning the the silver medal with a time of 11.45 seconds. But Dutee missed qualifying mark (11.32 seconds) for Rio Olympics by 1/100 second.
There was a role reversal in women 200 metre sprint with Srabani taking gold, clocking 23.39 seconds and Dutee settling with silver with a timing of 23.41 seconds. Purnima Hembram claimed the third gold medal for Odisha, finishing first in the seven-part event with 5,713 points. Odia women hurdler Jauna Murmu, who represented her employers ONGC, pocketed one gold in 400 metre hurdles and one bronze in 400 metre run, taking 58.60 seconds and in 53.37 seconds respectively.
However, Odisha suffered a major setback as male sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallick missed a medal in 100 metre sprint. The lithie Bhubaneswar athlete erased the National record in the semifinals, clocking 10.26 seconds, but suffered an injury (left hamstring pull) in the final and finished fourth with a time of 10.51 seconds.
ONGC sprinter Abdul Najeeb Qureshi, the holder of the National record (10.30 secs in 2010), won the bronze ahead of Amiya, while the gold and silver were claimed by Jyotisankar Debnath (10.41s) of Bihar and Krishna Kumar Rane (10.44s) of Maharashtra respectively. After injuring his left hamstring in the 100 meter final, Amiya Mallick did not take part in the 200 metre event. The three-day championships, the first major event of the season, also served as the qualifying event for the Rio Olympic Games.
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PHOTO: Odisha sprinters Dutee Chand (Right) and Srabani Nanda display their medals in New Delhi on April 28, 2016.
