Railways, with 282 points, retained the overall championship at the conclusion of the 53rd Open National athletics championship at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Tuesday.

The men’s team honours went to Services (163), while Railways kept the women’s championship (180). High hurdler Durgesh Kumar Pal (Services) and sprinter Merlin Joseph (Railways) won the individual honours with 1082 and 1130 points respectively.

The final day saw the Services 4x400m quartet of Kunhu Mohammad, Sachin Roby, Jithu Baby and Aroakia Rajiv clocking 3:07.27s to better the mark of 3:07.29s set by Services at New Delhi in 2002.

ONGC’s Dutee Chand completed a sprint double by taking the 200m gold in 24.02s. She had timed 23.74s, her season’s best, in the semifinals.

Like her teammate M.A. Prajusha (long and triple jump), L. Suriya of Railways registered a distance double by winning the 10,000m in a personal best time of 34:07.45. This was her second double crown in successive years.

Kunhu Mohammad led a Services sweep in the men’s 400m with the season’s best time of 46.51s to relegate defending champion Aroakia Rajiv to silver.

Maheshwary dethroned

Triple jumper Arpinder Singh (ONGC) went one up against defending champion Renjith Maheshwary with a jump of 16.70m. National and meet-record holder Maheshwary could touch only 16.64.

In the 1500m, Sandeep Karan Singh (Services) outpaced defending champion Sajeesh Joseph of Railways in the straight to time 3:46.97s, by far the best this season. Amiya Mallick of Odisha powered to the 200m gold with a season’s best time of 21.41.

Big burly Chandrodaya Narayan Singh (Uttar Pradesh) hurled the discus to 67.75m to add the Open gold to Federation Cup and Inter-State honours.

Sinimol Markose took gold in the women’s metric mile with inter-State champion O.P. Jaisha and Federation Cup winner Jhuma Khatun following her in that order. Sinimol, who had the season’s best of 4:16.06 set at Karlstad in July this year, clocked 4:29.72s.

The results:

Men: 200m: 1. Amiya Kumar Mallick (Odi) 21.22s, 2. Manikanda Arumugam (Rly) 21.47, 3. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi (ONGC) 21.56. 400m: 1. Kunhu Mohammad (Ser) 46.51s, 2. Aroakia Rajiv (Ser) 46.82, 3. Sachin Roby (Ser) 46.91.

1,500m: 1. Sandeep Karan Singh (Ser) 3:46.97s, 2. Sajeesh Joseph 3:47.91, 3. Anil Singh (MP) 3:48.05. 10,000m: 1. Kheta Ram (Ser) 29:47.92s, 2. Suresh Kumar (ONGC) 29:48.10, 3. Rati Ram Saini (Rly) 29:53.40.

Triple jump: 1. Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 16.70m, 2. Renjith Maheshwary (Rly) 16.64, 3. A.V. Rakesh Babu (Ser) 16.12. Hammer: 1. Chandrodaya Narayan Singh (UP) 67.75m, 2. Niraj Kumar (Ser) 66.19, 3. Kaushal Singh (Ser) 61.93.

4x100m relay: 1. Tamil Nadu 41.02s, 2. Services 41.15, 3. Railways 41.34. 4x400m: Services 3:07.27s (NMR, old: 3:07.29s by Services, New Delhi in 2002), 2. Haryana 3:11.87, 3. Railways 3:12.16.

Women: 200m: 1. Dutee Chand (ONGC) 24.02s, 2. Chavi Sharawat (Rly) 24.05, 3. V. Santhini (LIC) 24.30. 1,500m: 1. Sinimol Markose (ONGC) 4:29.72s, 2. O.P. Jaisha (Rly) 4:30.52, 3. Jhuma Khatun (Rly) 4:31.00.

10,000m: 1. L. Suriya (Rly) 34:07.45s, 2. Kavita Raut (ONGC) 34:36.25, 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Rly) 35:11.58. Discus: 1. Pramila (Rly) 48.10m, 2. Manisha (Har) 42.56, 3. Ankita Julka (LIC) 42.52. Heptathlon: 1. Sushmita Singha Roy (Rly) 5183 points, 2. Purnima Hembram (ONGC) 5108, 3. Navpreet Kaur (Pun) 5052.

4x100m relay: 1. Railways 46.35s, 2. LIC 47.68, 3. Kerala 48.75. 4x400m relay: 1. Kerala 3:43.90s, 2. Railways 3:44.70, 3. ONGC 3:45.79.


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