Three athletics meet records tumble

Unheralded M Lawrence of Services gave ample display of his talent, forcing his way into the record books as three meet records were re-written on the third day of athletics competition in the National Games in Ludhiana on Thursday.

After Punjab and Kerala dominated the first two days, doing the bulk of gold grabbing, the honours were equally shared by five teams which won a gold medal each on Thursday.

Tamil Nadu's Anju B George stole the limelight, creating a new meet record in the women's triple jump event with a leap of 13.61 metres, erasing the previous record of Lekha Thomas of Kerala, who had managed 13.13 metresin the last edition of the Games in Imphal.

The lanky M Lawrence brought cheer for Services by not only capturing the coveted gold in the men's high jump but by establishing a new meet record in the process. He cleared a height of 2.13 metres to break the previous record of 2.11 metres, established by Karnataka's Nagendra Kumar in 1997.

Delhi's Mandeep Singh also shot into prominance with his his record-breaking effort in the decathlon as he clinched the gold with a total of 6904 points. He eclipsed the previous record 6546 points, which stood in the name of Dharam Pal of Haryana.

Besides these two record-breaking performances, the standard was confined to mediocrity in most of the other track and field events even as organisers postponed a number of events to the next day.

Kerala maintained their supremacy in the jumping event with Geesh Kumar bagging the gold in the men's pole vault event, clearing a height of 4.90 metres while the silver was taken by Randhir Singh of Services with an effort of 4.70 metres.

In the men's hammer throw, Parmod Tiwari of Uttar Pradesh kept his reputation intact, clinching the gold with an effort of 64.13 meters, brushing aside the close 63.20 metres effort by Nirbhav Singh of Services.

Unlike the first two days of competitions, no state could really make a significant impact on the medals tally. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kerala and Services won a gold medal each on Thursday.

Hosts Punjab and Kerala are jointly on top of the medals tally in athletics with four gold medals each while Services and Tamil Nadu have three gold each in their kitty. Haryana (2), Maharashtra (2), Delhi (1) and Uttar Pradesh (1) are the other gold winners in the event so far.