Lakshmanan completes double at National Open Athletics C'ship

G Lakshmanan of Services completed a double by cruising to victory in the men's 10,000 metres on the final day of the 57th National Open Athletics Championship at the Nehru Stadium here today.
Railways with 296 points won the overall team championship with Services a distant second with 182 points in their kitty.
Also, Railways topped the women's team standings while Services reigned supreme in the men's section. As far as the medals tally, Railways finished with 16 gold medals followed by the Services with 12.
Tamil Nadu athlete Santhosh Kumar, who set a new meet record in the 400 metres hurdles and Chintha Yadav of Railways, the steeplechase winner, were named the 'best male and female athlete' respectively.

Lakshmanan had won the 5,000 metres gold on Monday. The Pudukottai athlete has been in fine form of late, having won a double at the Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneshwar and following it up with a gold in the Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan recently.
L Surya, daughter of Lakshmanan's coach S Loganathan, too achieved a double, by coasting to victory in the 10,000 metres. She had won the 5,000 metres event on the opening day of the championship.

In the triple jump, national record holder Ranjith Maheshwari of Railways was relegated to fourth with a leap of 15.94 metres. Kerala's K Sreejithmon jumped a distance of 16.15m to capture the gold medal.

The Services team won the 4 X 100 metres gold while Haryana men secured the 4 X 400 metres title.
In the women's 800 metres event, Olympian M R Poovamma of ONGC finished a poor fifth in a time of 2:09.24. Lili Das of Railways secured the gold in 2:04.51 followed by Sipra Sarkar of West Bengal.
She made some amends by anchoring ONGC to a gold medal in the 4 X 400 metres relay. The Karnataka team won the shorter relay ahead of Railways and Tamil Nadu.
The women's 20 kilometre walk saw ONGC's Priyanka take the gold. She emerged winner in the gruelling event, which saw nine of the 11 starters finish. Ravina of Haryana and L Deepmala Devi (Railways) took second and third places respectively.

Purnima Hembram of Karnataka with 5,126 points took the heptathlon gold ahead of Somiya (Railways) and Ava Khatua of West Bengal 4,855.
In the pole vault, national record holder V S Surekha of Railways could manage only 3.60 metres and had to settle for sixth spot. The event was won by Khyathi Vakharia of Karnataka, who cleared 3.90 metres.
Results - Finals: Men: 10,000 metres: 1. G Lakshmanan (Services) 29:16.21, 2. Vasudev Nishad (Railways) 29:32.77, 3. Suresh Kumar (ONGC) 29:45.41.
200 metres: 1. Vidya Sagar (Services) 21:46s, 2. Praveen (Haryana) 21:49s, 3. K Ashok (Services) 21:53s.
800 metres: 1. Ajay Saroj (Railways) 1:49.05, 2. Md Afsal (Services) 1:49.16, 3. Vishamber Kolekar (Railways) 1:50.18.

Triple Jump: 1. K Sreejithmon (Kerala) 16.15m 2. Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 16.06m, 2. Rakesh Babu (Services) 16.06m, 4. Ranjith Maheshwari (Railways) 15.94m.
Hammer Throw: 1. Niraj Kumar (Services) 65.42m, 2. Ashish Jakhar (Haryana) 64.00m, 3. Sukhdev Singh (Railways) 63.38m.
4 X 100 Metres Relay: 1. Services (Satnam Singh, Vinit Panwar, Vidya Sagar, Md Sadath) 40.17, 2. Tamil Nadu 40.94, 3. All-India Police Sports Board 41.08.
4 X 400 Metres Relay: 1. Haryana (Aman Auluck, Manjeet, Ravinder, Ravi Kumar) 3:10.55, 2. Andhra Pradesh 3:11.74, 3. Uttar Pradesh 3:13.32.
Women: 200 metres: 1. Himas Das (Assam) 24.26, 2. S Archana (Tamil Nadu) 24.33, 3. Anwesha Roy Pradhan (West Bengal) 24.56s. 10,000 metres: 1. L Surya (Railways) 32:42.62, 2. Parul Chaudhary (Railways) 33:43.07, 3. Saigeeta Naik (All India Police Sports Board) 34:54.93.

20 Km Walk: 1. Priyanka (ONGC) 1:40:43.00, 2. Ravina (Haryana) 1:43:39.00, 3. L Deepmala Devi (Railways) 1:43:50.00.
800 metres: 1. Lili Das (Railways) 2:04.51, 2. Sipra Sarkar (West Bengal) 2:05.85, 3. Komal Chaudhary (Railways) 2:06.45.
Discus Throw: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur (Railways) 54.25m, 2. Navjeet Kaur (Railways) 53.20m, 3. Baljit Kaur (All India Police Sports Board) 45.95m.
Heptathlon: 1. Purnima Hembram (Karnataka) 5,126 points, 2. Somiya (Railways) 4,950, 3. Ava Khatua (West Bengal) 4,855.
Pole Vault: 1. Khyathi Vakharia (Karnataka) 3.90 metres, 2. Sathya (Tamil Nadu) 3.75m, 3. Dija Chandran (Railways) 3.70m.
4 X 100 Metres Relay: 1. Karnataka (Apsana Begum, Prajna S Prakash, M G Padmini, H M Jyothi) 46.28, 2. Railways 46.48, 3. Tamil Nadu 46.66.

4 X 400 Metres Relay: 1. ONGC (Jauna Murmu, Rajni Nagar, Twinkle Chaudhary, M R Poovamma) 3:38.81, 2. Railways, Karnataka.