Three new meet records created as Railways domination continued

BHOPAL, Oct 8 (UNI): Hurdler Joseph G Abraham, jumper Renjith and pole vaulter V Surekha set up new meet records in their respective events in the Senior National Open Athletics here today.

Railwayman Abraham clocked 50.26 sec to set up a new meet record in the 400m Hurdles and, in the process he erased the 11 year old record of 50.43 sec set by Sahib Singh to finish with the gold.

Though Abraham continued his good show by taking his fifth straight win in the 400m hurdle in the domestic competitions this year.

He was very far from his personal best (49.51s) which he set as a national record in 2007.

"I'm surprised with my time, but I'm very happy to beat the meet record," said Abraham, adding "I am really in a good tune and I know that I have to give atleast my personal best to won the Gold medal at the 18th Asian Athletics Championships." His teammates Avin A Thomas and Satinder Singh crossed the hurdles in 50.70s and 51.52s won the silver and bronze respectively.

V S Surekha( Railways) established a new meet record in the women's pole vault, bettering her own record with a leap of 4.00 metres.

She also tried to 4.10m height to break her own national record of 4.08m but couldn't succeed to cross the bar in her all three attempts.

Surekha improved upon her own mark of 3.85 metres, set in 2006, to win the gold, her teammates Madhusini Devi, with a jump of 3.50 metres, finished second and Tapsi Nandi, who cleared 3.30 metres, settle for the third spot.

Renjith erased Amarjeet Singh's meet record of 16.53m created in 2007 with a spectacular jump of 16.68m in his fifth attempt.

His teammate and previous record holder Amarjeet Singh also managed 16 plus jump for the silver.

He jumped 16.22m.

Indian Railways, which has fielded a strong contingent in this meet, continued to rule the roost with 16G, 14S and 9B to be on the top of the medal tally while the Services with 4G, 1S & 4B was placed second on the conclusion of day three.