Athletics: Indian Grand Prix 2013 1st Leg Review

The opening event in Indian Athletics calendar for the year 2013 concluded recently at National Institute of Sports in Patiala. The first leg of the Indian Grand Prix series was marred with usual controversy of shift in venues, incompetent officials as well as talks of an AGM, nominations and elections!

Rather than focusing on non events we will shift our attention to the actual performances delivered by our athletes.

Men’s Review

100m: Tamil Nadu’s Bala Murugan representing Railways was the fastest man in the field followed by Shameer Mon and Al Ammeen. All three recorded a time below 11 seconds but are still far off from their personal bests. Bala Murugan usually participates in 110m hurdles and 4*400m relay team of Tamil Nadu.

400m: It was a close finish with Army man Rajiv Arokia pipping favourites Mortaza and Kuni Mohammed by 0.3 seconds.

800m: The oldest standing Indian Athletics record (37 years) comes from this event. A close finish, even in this event saw Manjit Singh taking the gold by going past favourites Pranjal Gogoi and Girish Ramchandran. But none could break the 1:50.00 sec barrier which means we are still short by 5 seconds to break Ram Singh’s Montreal feat!

400m h: Jitin Paul’s target would have been the 50 second mark but with a non-competitive line up and only two finishers Jitin could only manage 52.48s in the hurdles.

Long Jump: Arshad dominated proceeding with a 7m+ first jump and came close to his personal best but then faded in his last three attempts and recorded 7.36m to clinch top spot.

Triple Jump: Ranjit Maheshwari had a good day at the office and consistently jumped passed 16m+ in 5 of his six attempts and clocked 16.67m. He should ideally peak as the season goes along and 17m should not be far.

Shot Put: Another star player in the field at Patiala, Om Prakash, hovered around the 18m mark, which is a good sign at this point of the season.

Javelin Throw: Devendra Singh and Samarjit Singh, both 25 and regulars at the National events, came first and second respectively with throws close to the 75m mark.

Women’s Review

100m: Merlin Joseph and Asha Roy both broke the 12 second barrier to finish 1-2 and in turn achieved their personal bests too.

400m: Veterans in the event, Ratandeep Kaur and Sarawati Chand fell behind as Anju Thomas led the pack followed by Papathi, Priyanka and Monica. The young Anju clocked her personal best of 55.03 seconds

800m: With none of the top athletes in fray, it was a poor result from the 800m event as Tamil Nadu’s Gomathy won recording a timing of 2:11.53 seconds.

Triple Jump: Another poor showing in the triple Jump with lack of quality in action meant Kerala’s Amitha representing Railways only recorded a single jump of mere 12.47m to clinch Gold.