Manchester, 20 Jul:  Sushma Devi of India won the women's 800m "A" race in 2:04.78s at the BMC Trafford Grand Prix held Longford Athletic Stadium near Manchester. In the women's 1500m Sinimole Paulose won the "B" race in 4:19.66s but finished overall third.
             Indian athletic team who has been training in UK for last 51 days will return back to India today. 

Pramila , Sushmita achieved "A" grade
Bangalore, July 18: What a comeback!! G G Pramila Aiyappa has achieved what had left unfulfilled 4 years ago. In 2004, all she needed just four points for which she had to wait four long years before she accomplished today her dream to participate in the world’s biggest sporting gala “Olympics Games” to be held next month at Beijing.

Pramila, former National record holder in Long Jump, has shown enormous determination and courage to win women’s Heptathlon event at the National Combined and Jump Competition with a point tally of 6078 points, well above “A” qualification standard for Olympics. Pramila beat favourite Sushmita Singha Roy of West Bengal who too achieved “A” qualifying standards with total points of 6027.
                  Men’s Decathlon won the P J Vinod with total points of 7070 while Ranjit Randhawa, son of legendary decathlete Gurbachan Randhawa made comeback on national scene with silver finish in 7002 points. In the women’s Long Jump Anju George leaped to 6.55m to win while Mayokha Johny registered her personal best jump of 6.35m to finished second.
                     With this list of Beijing bound athletes has gone up to 16 and some more may add tomorrow when Indian middle distance runners compete in BMC Grand Prix at Manchester.

Surendra Singh qualifies for Olympics in 10000m

Vigo, July 13, 2008: India’s Surendra Singh has improved his one month old national record in the men’s 10000m run with a new astonishing timing of 28:02.79s. Surendra finished 4^th in the Spanish Olympic trials ‘Campeonato De Espana de 10000’ held here yesterday.

“I couldn’t believe I have made it” said elated Surendra after the race. He further said “Its been 2 years I was preparing for Olympics and finally all my hard work has paid today”. 

Surendra was determined to achieve qualification and planned his race with 2min 49sec pace per kilometre but it was pace for the 2^nd kilometre ( 2:43) which put him in the fast lane along with Spanish runners and he kept running consistently below 2min 50sec per kilometre before speeding up last kilometre in 2min 38seconds to clock 28:02.89s.

Born in the farmer’s family in village Ghandiyal ( Chamoli District) of Uttrakhand, Surendra took early lessons in running unintentionally  by running daily 10km to attend Govt. Inter College at Gairsain. 
Later he joined Garhwal Rifles regiment in 1999 as an ordinary entrant after failing five attempts where he was rejected for the reason of unfit body. Now Surendra will become the first athlete from Garhwal Rifle’s 122 year old history to participate in the Olympics.
Surendra first represented Army in the National cross country held in Simla ( 2003) which earned him his maiden international cap for India. His brilliant run in the Asian Cross Country held in Pune in 2004 brought him in the notice of Army Sports Institute where he trained for the next one year before joining India’s middle and long distance coach Dr. Nikolai Sneasrav’s army in 2006 at Bangalore.

Results: 1. Juan Carlos De La Ossa Yunta ( ESP) 27:28.31s, 2. Carles Castillejo Salvador (ESP) 27:39.79s, 3. Ayad Lamdassem El Mouhcin ( ESP) 27:45.58s, 4. Surendra Singh  ( IND) 28:02.89s, 5. Ali Abdallah ( ERI) 28:04.58s, 6. Rui Pedro Silva ( POR) 28:05.78s

Cork, July 12, 2008: Sinimole Paulose won the women’s 1500m at the 57^th Cork City Sports meet, a European permit meet held in Cork, Ireland today. Prevailing rainy and windy condition slow down Sinimole performance but it did not stop her from beating Russian Olesia Tyurina with a timing of 4:16.79s thus pocketing € 2000 cash award. Sushm Devi also from India finished on the third place with 4:19.15s.  

Results:
Women: 1. Sinimole Paulose India 4:16.79s, 2. Olesia Tyurina Russia 4:18.06s, 3. Sushma Devi India 4:19.15s Men 1500m: 1. Bernard Kiptum Kenya 3:38.70s, 2. Alistair Cragg Ireland 3:39.12s, 3. Rob Myers USA 3:39.37s 4. Mitch Kealey Australia 3:39.70s, 5. Adrian Blincoe New Zealand 3:39.97s, 6. Chatholi Hazma India 3:42.36s 12. Paritam Bind India 3:48.83s 400m : 1. Greg Nixon USA 45.59s, 2. Peter Znova Slovakia 46.67s, 3. Abderrahim El Haouzy France 46.87s, 4. K.M. Binu India 46.99s

New Delhi, Jul 5,2008:  Athletics Federation of India has selected 10 member Indian Athletic Team for the IAAF World Junior Athletics Championships to be held at Bydgoszcz (Poland) from 8^th -13^th July 2008.  

M. R. Poovamma from Karnataka will be the biggest hope for Indian team. Poovamma is in good form which helped Indian women 4x400 relay team to clock best timing in recent years. L. Yogiraj, talented High Jumper from Tamilnadu is another athlete who could throw surprise results in Bydgoszcz. Although his recent 2.14m jump is not figured in World top marks but he is capable of raising the bar to new heights. Team India will leave tomorrow from New Delhi.

Team India: Junior Men: Jithin Paul , 400m Hurdles ( Kerala), Shejil Verghese, 400m Hurdles ( Kerala), Lakshmanan yogiraj, High Jump ( Tamilnadu), Jasdeep Singh Dhillon, Shot Put ( Punjab)  Junior Women: M. R. Poovamma, 400m, 4x400m ( Karnataka), Tintu Luka, 800m, 4x400m ( Kerala) Simon Rajam Bindhu, 800m, 4x400m ( Kerala), Chinchu Jose, 4x400m ( Kerala), Jauna Murmu, 4x400 ( West Bengal)  Team Manager: Suresh Babu, Team Coach: P.T. Usha.

London, 29 Jun. 08: Rajeev Ramesan of India barely missed the Olympic qualification mark in the 800m yesterday at Nike Grand Prix held at Solihull by British Milers Club. Rajeev ran his personal best timing of 1:47.06s to win the race but it was just 0.06s out of the “ B” qualification mark. Another Indian in the race Sajeesh Joseph finished on the 3^rd place with 1:47.48s. Rajeev and Sajeesh will try to correct their race strategy on 2^nd July meet at Watford.

In the men’s 5000m, Surendra Singh was aiming to break into sub 13:25min badly affected by the sudden change in the weather but it won’t dithered him from winning the race with personal best timing of 13:45.77s , 2^nd all time fastest by an Indian. Running with 65sec a lap strategy, Surendra was within 13:25s till 2 laps to go but in the end he could managed only 13:45.77s.

Earlier, Preeja Sreedharan who has already qualified for Olympic in 10000m dominated the 5000m race with an easy victory and new personal best of 15:45.61s.

Current Asian Champion, Sinimole Paulose ran her season best of 4:11.64s in the women’s 1500m. She finished behind winner Stephanie Twell of UK.

Indian athletes win 5 gold in 2nd Asian Grand Prix 2008 at Korat
Korat, June 26: Indian women 4x400m relay team slammed the critics with brilliant performance of 3:28.29s in the 2nd leg of Asian Grand Prix at Korat to ensure the place in World's top 16 teams which will run in Beijing Olympics this August.

Indian team had finished on 7th place in Athens Olympics in 2004 and since then team was on the winning spree on the continental level with title at Asian Games 2006, Asian Championships 2007 and silver in Commonwealth Games 2006.

Slowdown in timing in 2007 raised doubt over team's performance but it was largely due to transition of runners from Junior to senior level. Emergence of Mandeep Kaur and Sini Jose and consistent performance from Chitra Soman brought back the team in winning gear in 2008.

National record holder Manjit Kaur who attained B qualification in Yalta got injured during Madurai Nationals but the fact that today's race was without Manjit and still team managed to register best timings since Athens 2004. Click here to view the results

Bangkok, June 23: Indian athletes dominated the 1^st leg of Asian Grand Prix 2008 held at Bangkok today.

Indian women relay team won the gold with 3:32.55s beating China and host Thailand. India need to run must faster in the second leg of Asian GP series in Korat ( THA) on June 27 in order to secure World top 16 position which will also secure India’s entry in the Beijing Olympic Games. In the past, Indian team had reached finals of women 4x400m relay in the Los Angles 1984 and Athens Olympics 2004.

Indian men’s 4x400m relay team consisting of Bibin Mathew, Bhupendra Singh, S.K. Mortaja and K.M. Binu beat Sri Lankan team with a good margin clocking 3:07.26s against Sri lanka’s 3:10.91s. Earlier K. M. Binu , semi finalist of Athens Olympic 2004 came third with a timing of 47.36s. Amarsekara Prasanna of Srilanka won the race in 46.89s

In the middle distance events India’s men runners sweep the medals with 1-2 finish in 1500m and 3000m.  India’s Sandeep Karan Singh won men’s 1500m with a timing of 3:51.32s while youngster Naresh Yadav finished on the second place in 3:51.61s. Kashinath Aswale , recovering from back injury came up with winning performance of 8:09.92s in the 3000m race while teamamte Ajay Kumar Patel finished close second with 8:09.97s

India’s ace jumper Anju George won the women’s Long Jump title with modest 6.41m although Anju is expected to reach her form during the Asian GP ahead of Olympics.

India’s Satyender Singh continue his winning form with a throw of 18.42m in the men’s shot put while giant Om Prakash took third place in 17.77m.

Mandeep Kaur ran another sub 52second race in the women’s 400m with a winning time of 51.94s. Harwant kaur who has already attained A qualification for Olympics finished on the 2^nd place with a throw of 60.78m while Seema Antil and Krishna Poonia remained on 4^th and 5^th place. In the men’s triple jump defending champion Renjith Maheshwary could not repeat 2007 performance and finished on the 2^nd place with a jump of 16.53m. 2^nd leg of Asian Grand Prix will be held at Korat ( THA) on June 27

Madurai, Jun 18: Krishna Mohan finally emerged out of shadow of runner up position in high hurdles with a brand new national record of 14.00s in the men's 110m hurdles on the last day of the 48th National Senior Athletics Championship at Madurai. Maharashtra's Sandip Parmar set his personal best with 14.58s to finish on second place while D. Prasad of Andhra Pradesh took bronze medal in 14.82s. In the women's 100m hurdles Anuradha Biswal of Orissa once again shown her dominance with an impressive timing of 13.82s. In the men's 400m K. M. Binu revived himself ahead Olympics with a win in 46.32s but he is still outside qualifying mark for Olympics. He had reached to the semis of Athens 2004 Olympic games. 

Indian athletes thrilled UK with record breaking performances in Nike BMC Elite GP Athletics.

London, June 15, 2008: Indian athletes put up excellent performances in their 2^nd competition in UK.

Surendra Singh and Preeja Sreedharan, India’s ultimate King and Queen of Long Distance running. 

Surendra Singh submerged another long standing Indian record within a span of 10 days. He busted 32 year old record in 10000m run ( 28:48.72s) held by distinguished Hari Chand set in 1976 Montreal Olympics with an excellent timing of 28:22.79s. Surendra was running in UK Olympic trials for 10000m organised by British Milers Club as Nike BMC Grand Prix at Watford, outside of London. In due course he improved his personal best by more than 30 seconds.

Surendra exploited perfect weather conditions with an average of 2min 52sec per kilometer till 9km mark and he surged ahead in final kilometer which he completed in 2min 49sec. However, Surendra Singh, 30 years old Indian army man failed to breach the Olympic qualifying mark but it does not rule out the credit to him for the best run by any Indian in the history of Indian athletics. Teammate Sandip Kumar finished 4^th with a new personal best of 29:17.97s

Inspired by Surendra’s run, Preeja Sreedharan, current Indian record holder in 10000m too put up an amazing performance in the women’s 10000m run to finish second behind Jo Pavey with a new national record timing of 32:04.41s sliced more than  1 minute from her previous record of 33:19.71s set in Kolkata on 13^th May 2007.

Preeja became the first Indian women 10000m runner to meet “B” qualifying norms for Bejing Olympics.

Rajeev Ramesan clocked his personal best in 800m with a timing of 1:47.20s to win overall 800m run while Sajeesh Joseph grabbed 2^nd place in 1:47.67s.

Indian team will come back to Watford on June 18 to take part in BMC Gold Races.

Indian athletes have set 3 national records after arriving to London. Team India is training at Newham Sports Academy run by Olympic gold medalist Tessa Sanderson, OBE at Newham, host borough of London 2012 Olympics.

Results:

Nike BMC Elite Grand Prix, Watford, June 14, 2008

Men    

800M : 1. Rajeev Ramesan,(IND) 1:47.20s; 2. Sajeesh Joseph (ind) 1:47.67s; 3. David Mccarthy (IRELAND) 1:47.96s; 1500m B:  3. Paritam Bind (India) 3:42.91s; 5. Ravinder (IND) 3:43.83s; 10000m : 1. Surender Singh (IND) 28:22.79s NR; 2. Antony Ford ( Blackpool Wyre & Fylde) 28:30.39s; 3.Phil Nicholls (TIPTON) 28:54.95s 4. Sandip Kumar (IND) 29:17.97s

Women

800m: 8. Sushma Devi (IND) 02:05.90s; 1500m: 1. Deirdre Byrne (IRELAND) 4:10.92s, 2. Sinimole Paulose (IND) 4:13.15s, 3.Emma Pallant (ENG) 4:13.76s; 10000m : 1. Jo Pavey ( Exeter) 31:56.90s; 2. Preeja Sreedharan (IND) 32:04.41s NR; 3. Hayley Yelling ( Windsoe Sloguh) 32:39.80s

Jakarta, June 13,2008: India's upcoming talented Savita Dhankar won the silver medal in the junior girls 3000m run final in the 13th Asian Junior Athletics Championships which commenced yesterday at Madhya Stadium here. Savita Clocked 9:39.83s to win silver while Japanese Michi Numata won the gold in 9:33.86.
In the junior boys Shot put, Jasdeep Singh won the bronze medal with a throw of 18.43m.

New Delhi, 9 Jun 2008: Athletics Federation of India has selected 35 member Indian athletic team to take part in the 13th Asian Junior Athletics Championship to be held at Madya Stadium, Jakarata from Jun 12-15, 2008. Click here to view the list of selected athletes>>

Anju finish 7th in Prefontaine Classic
Eugene, 9 June 2008: India's ace jumper Anju George finished disappointing 7th in the Prefontaine Classic meet with a distance of 6.47m. Anju could not add on her opening jump of 6.47m and fouled two jumps. Maggi Marren of Brazil won the event with massive 7.02m jump. Now Anju will take part in Asian Grand Prix series 2008 starting from Bangkok on June 23.

Pune, May 24,2008: Kerala emerge victorious , Dhiraj, Tintu, Pankaj set National marks
Kerala continue to dominate Indian athletics championships with another commanding championship points in the 8th Federation Cup Junior and 5th Youth Athletics Championship which concluded here at Baburao Sanas Ground. Uttar Pradesh came a close second in the boys section with eight medals.

Maharashtra's Dhiraj Mishra in a sterling effort set a new national mark in the boys under-18 triple jump event with a leap clearing 15.37 meters and in the process obliterated his own national mark of 15.36 by merely one millimeter to capture the gold .

Tintu Luka won the 800 meters run for girls under-20, stopping the clock at 2:05:21 and in the process erased K Beenamol's 16 year old National mark of 2:07.73sec.

Pankaj Dimri of Uttrakhand had to wage a grim battle before winning the 800 meters race for boys under-19, setting a new national mark in bargain of 1:53:08. The lad, thus, bettered the previous record standing in the name of P Trinadh of 1:53:56, created in 2005. As many as six new national records , 13 championship records and one record were equaled in the last three days. Indian team for Asian Junior Athletics Championship scheduled to be held at Jakarta will be selected from this championship.

Pune, May 23,2008: Haryana's Sudhir Kumar rewrote his own National record in the boys under 18 long jump with a distance of 7.39m. Other record of the day came from Manju Bala of Gujrat who sent the hammer soaring to a distance of 52.26m to set another National record to her name in the Girls under 20 years on the second day of the National Federation Cup Junior and Youth Athletics Championship here. Manju has shown consistent improvement in hammer during the last 3 years. It inspire Delhi's Kanika Kumari to push her limit in the girls under 18 years Hammer throw final to set new meet record of 48.08m.Read more
 

Pune, 22 May 2008: Manpreet Kaur of Punjab smashed the existing National record in the girls under 20 years with a massive throw of 15.44m to beat Seema Antil's 6 year old record of 14.89m on the first day of the 8th National Federation Cup Junior athletics championship begin here today.

In the boys 20 high jump L. Yogiraj of Tamilnadu set the new meet record of 2.14m ( old record of omveer singh 2.10m set in 2001)

G. M. Aishwarya of Karnataka jumped to 5.87m to erase M A Prajusha's 4 year old meet record of 5.71m in the final of the girls under 18 years Long Jump at 5th National Youth Athletics Championship commenced at baburao sanas ground in Pune. Pallavi Sukumar also from Karnataka and Asha Roy of west bengal secured second and third place respectively.

Cheboksary, May 11,20008: India's Harminder Singh finished on 63^rd place with 4 hr. 35 min 24 seconds while Basanta Bahadur Rana (4hr 43:09sec) and Jalan Parayil Surendran (5hr 04:31 sec) crossed the line on 69^th and 71^st position respectively in the 50km walk final of 23^rd IAAF World Race Walking Cup held at Cheboksary ( Russia) today. Babubhai Panucha could not finish the race while Chandan Singh was disqualified. India finished on 12th position in Team category with 203 points. for results click here. Read more

Anju perform season best jump in Doha Super GP  

Doha, 9 May 2008: India’s ace jumper Anju Bobby George registered her season best performance in the Doha Super Grand Prix with a jump of 6.55m but it was not enough to finish in medal bracket and had to content with 5^th place.

Russia’s Tatyana Kotovo took 20 point with a jump of 6.83m while Brazilian jumper Maurren Higa Maggi jumped to 6.75m for second place beating Jamaican Chelsea Hammond who finished third with 6.69m. For complete results click here.  

Krishna Poonia attains Olympic “A” qualification in Discus at Salinas with 63.74m.

Salinas, CA, May 9,2008: Krishna Poonia flanged 1kg discus to her new personal best of 63.74m in the Meet No. 3 of USATF Discus Development Series 2008 held yesterday at Hartnell Junior College ground in Salinas while Vikas Gowda who had set national record of 64.96m at the same place a year ago failed to take maximum advantage of windy condition (right headwind of 5 m/s) and finished 2^nd in Group B and 5^th overall with 64.83m, 13cm short of his National record.

Gerd Kanter and Stephanie Trafton set World leading mark with 71.88m and 66.17m respectively in this meet. Although no official series are available. Only each competitor's best throw was measured.

Krishna Poonia, a 31-year-old from Jappu, Rajisthan has been training in Concordia University at Portland, Ore., since February with 1976 Olympic Gold medallist US discus thrower Mac Wilkins said that she will throw farther in coming meets.

RESULTS
MEN : 1. Gerd Kanter (Estonia) 71.88m WL, 2. Mart Israel (Estonia) 65.03m, 3. John Godina (adidas) 64.99m, 4. Benn Harradine (Australia) 64.95m, 5. Vikas Gowda (India) 64.83m, 6. Casey Malone (Nike) 64.56m, 7. Brian Trainor (unattached) 64.32m, 8. Niklas Arrhenius (Sweden) 63.72m

 WOMEN :1. Stephanie Trafton (USA) 66.17m WL, 2. Krishna Poonia (India) 63.74 PB,  3. Anna Soderberg (Sweden) 61.58m, 4. Cecelia Barnes (unattached) 59.35m, 5. Kelechi Anyanwu (unattached) 57.24M

Doha, May 7,2008: Anju to embark Bejing journey with Doha GP

For Anju Bobby George time has come, after long preparatory training period full of strength workouts, technique correction, runway speed and ambition to fulfil Nation’s dream i.e. to win an elusive Olympic medal. Anju will reach Bejing via 10 stops around the world to get into full force at Olympics to realise Indian dream.

Her first stop will be in Qatar at Doha Super GP on May 9 where she will take on her arch rival world champion Tatyana Kotova of Russia followed by series of competition in Europe.

In 2008, Anju has cleared 6.50m in front of home crowd during SAF Athletics meet in Kochi and had won silver in her season opener in Asian Indoor at Doha. She knows she has to perform beyond magical 7m barrier to remain in the medal bracket in Bejing in August. Read more

New Delhi, May 6,2008: Neha Nissar and Angad Pal Singh, Delhi's two promising young athletes from Modern school died in the unfortunate car accident on May 4 at Noida-Greater Noida express way.

Neha who was National Inter-District champion in 2005 in 400m ( 60.52sec) and had won many medals at the State and National level athletics competitions.

May God bless with peace to Neha and Angad's family in this time. AFI has its deepest sympathies to Neha and Angad's family. Read more

New Delhi, April 23,2008: Athletics Federation of India has carried out the major reshuffle in the competition calendar of 2008-2009 season. This was done in the view of major international events to be held in later part of 2008. Click here to view the updated national competition calendar Read more

New Delhi, April 23,2008: Athletics Federation of India has invited sport industry experts in the today's important meeting to discus about revamping programme of Indian athletics and modernization of Athletics programme in order to make it more interesting, attractive & commercially viable for the athletes & spectators. M.S. Gill, Sports Minister Govt of India will inaugurate the at 9:30am at Casuarina Hall, Indian Habitat Centre.

New Delhi, April 23,3008: India's ace discus thrower Krishna Poonia became the 5th Indian athlete to attain the Bejing Olympic Qualification mark with a throw of 59.04m in the Mt. SAC Relays organised by Mt. San Antonio Community College at Hilmer Lodger Stadium-Walnut, CA in USA. National record holder Vikas Gowda started the season with modest throw of 55.54m in Tennessee Relays organised by Cedarville University  on April 12,2008 at Knoxville, Tenn (USA) . Click here to view the results

Ace Indian runner Manjeet Kaur gets Rs. 34 lakh

Chandigarh, March 28: Ace Indian athlete Manjeet Kaur ( 400m National record holder 51.05s) got a major boost in her preparations for the Beijing Olympics when a New Delhi-based real estate group handed her Rs. 34 lakh on Tuesday for her training under an American coach in California.

The cheque was presented to Manjeet, a Punjab Police Inspector, by Rohtas Goyal, Chairman of the Omaxe Group in the presence Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal and State DGP N.P.S. Aulakh. Omaxe has given the money to Manjeet for her training at the V.S. Athletics Track Club, California, under famous sprinter Cedric Hill. The training would last about 75 days, Manjeet said, adding she is preparing for the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, as well as the 2010 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. (PTI)

March 24,2008, New Delhi: Athletics Federation of India has selected India's top 105 Men and 80 Women for the National Senior Coaching Camp 2008 starting from 1st April 2008 to 31st December 2008. Camps will be held at NS NIS Patiala
 ( Punjab), Bangalore ( Karnataka) , Kolkata ( West Bengal) and Delhi.
Selected athletes will undergo vigorous training regime to prepare for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games and Asian Games in 2010. Bahadur Singh will be the chief coach while he will be assisted by 53 coaches ( including 8 foreign coaches) . Government of India has drawn up a Rs 802-crore crash scheme to train sportspersons to improve the performance of the Indian contingent in the Commonwealth Games, 2010 in New Delhi. Click here to view the list of selected athletes .

AFI has also selected 83 boys and 91 girls for the important training camp of the India's youth athletes who will take part in the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games to be held at Pune in October 2008. Legendary athlete Suresh Babu will be chief coach of the juniors. These camps will be held at Jamshedpur, Patiala and Thruanantapuram from 1st April to 19th May 2008. Click here to view the list of selected athletes.

All selected athletes are requested to report the camp before start of the camp. They are also advised to carry their valid Passport, if held. It may please be noted that Athletes not reporting for the Camp in time, may not be allowed to join the Camp.

March 24,2008, Pune:  Govt. of Maharashtra gives Rs 50,000 Scholarship For Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) Athletes.
                   It is a big boost for the 56 state-level athletes who were awarded a scholarship of Rs 50,000 each by the directorate of sports of Govt. of Maharashtra recently. The athletes have been scouted for the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) to be held here in October. These athletes were selected through various state-level camps in all the nine disciplines of CYG. However, the youths have been given only one half of the scholarship as the total scholarship money is Rs one lakh. The remaining cash would be awarded to them once they earn their place in the Indian team.

Laxmikant Deshmukh, director of sports and youth affairs, said, "The aim of giving this scholarship money is to boost their confidence and encourage them to excel. They can utilize it for training, buying sports equipment."

South Asian Athletics Championship- Day 1
Kochi - India, 7 Mar 2008: Pakistan's Ghulam Shabir Hussain clinched the first gold medal of the South Asian Athletic Championships here this morning. He set the ball and chain touched 59.16m for this effort, pushed the favorite Madhu Kumar of India to second place.

Shabir's throw was, however, short of his personal best 62.10m achieved eight years ago! The Indian returned with a paltry 56.26m for the silver, while his teammate Jitender Singh got the bronze in 55.61m. Kumar entered the fray with a PB of 64.66m in his name

Earlier a colorful march past by athletes, releasing of balloons and bursting of crackers marked the opening of the first South Asian Athletics Championship which began in Kochi on Friday morning.  The march past was led by Bangladesh, followed by Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and finally the hosts India. Middle Distance Runner Mandeep Kaur led the Indian contingent.  Athlete Shiny Wilson lit the the games lamp at the stadium after a torch relay by Padmini Thomas, Mercy Kuttan and K M Beenamol. Over 200 athletes are participating in the two day event

17.2.2008

Kochi will host South Asian Athletics Championships from 6-8 March. click here to view the championship website

Doha, Feb 16: Sinimol Paulose, 24 year old reigning Asian, Asian Indoor Games champion added another title to her kitty with an exhilarating win over Matsko Mragarita of Kazakhstan in the final of women’s 800m. Running neck to neck, Matsko made Sinimol sweat out in the last 400m of the race. Eventually Sinimol shred more than 3 seconds from her personal best. Sinimol clocked 2:03.43s for first place with championship record. Sushm Devi also from India took over Matsko in the last 50m to finish on second place with a personal best performance of 2:04.66s while Matsko settled on third place in 2:04.85s

Indian Women 4x400m relay team won the gold medal for India with a new Asian and championship record timing of 3:37.46s. Mandeep Kaur started the race and hand over baton to Manjeet Kaur who failed to extend the lead achieved by Mandeep and it became Sini Jose’s call to regain the lead but she failed to do so and finally hand over baton to Asian Games champion Chitra Soman who ran spirited 2 laps, overtaking Kazak runner in the last 30m to register an exciting win of the day. Kazaksthan team finished second with 3:38.10s while Thailand took bronze in 3:43.22s

P. J. Vinod, Asian Indoor Games champion once again reckoned the same points achieved in Macau during Asian Indoor Games to win Gold medal for India. Vinod scored 5561 points to win the gruesome Indoor heptathlon contest. Sephrzad Hadi of Iran finished on second place with 5515 points while Hiromasa Tanaka of Japan took bronze with 5306 points.

In the men’s 800m, Rajeev Ramesan and Sajeesh Joseph opt for leading strategy to win the race but faded out in the lap due to pressure from Bahrain’s Kamal Yusuf Saad. Kamal clocked 1:48.03s to equal the championship record. Iran’s Ehsan won first medal for Iran with silver place in 1:48.68s while Masato Yokota of Japan took bronze in 1:49.30. India’s Ramesan Rajeev finished fourth with 1:49.46s.

Om Prakash, participating in his maiden Indoor competition earned silver medal for India and first continental championship medal for himself in the final of Men’s Shot Put with a throw of 18.37m which was better than the championship record. Gholoum Ahmed of Kuwait won Gold medal with a throw of 18.55m. Yao Yong Guang of China took bronze with 18.16m. 

In the men’s 3000m final Surendra Singh won silver medal with a new personal best of 7:49.47s, an improvement of more than 15 seconds to his indoor best. With three Qatari’s in battle, Surender remain with them till end but in the last curve Sultan Zaman of Qatar spurt ahead Surendra to win the race. Sultan took 7:49.31s to win Gold while Surendra and James Kurui of Qatar (7:50.76s) took silver and bronze respectively.  

Indian Men 4x400m relay team won silver for India in the last final of the Championships with a timing of 3:16.53s. Saudi Arabia’s team proved to be very strong for India as Saudi runners dominated the race from start to finish. Saudi Arabia clocked 3:14.25s to register 6^th championship record of the third day. Host Qatar team finished third with 3:17.93s.

Railways runners dominates National Cross Country

Goa, Feb 16: India Railways runners dominated the 42nd National Cross Country Championship held at Goa. Santosh Kumar won the 12km run with a time of 37:49 min , Preeti L. Rao was victorious in the women's 8km run clocking 29:11min. Maharashtra's Ashok Kumbhare hold railways runners in men's 4km run where he beat brigade of  railways runners. Ashok clocked 12:01min to win exciting finish. Arvind Kumar Yadav of Uttar Pradesh claim gold medal in the junior men's 8km run with a timing of 25:44 min. Click here to view the complete results. Read more

Anju takes off to realize unfinished dream

Doha, Feb 14: Anju takes off on her way to realize unfinished dream with silver medal in the women’s Long Jump final at the Asian Indoors Athletics Championship in Doha. Anju jumped to win the first medal for India on the opening day of the Championships.

Anju started with modest distance of 6.01m, after few more checks on the runway she jumped to 6.33m in the second attempt. Adding 3cm in the third attempt, Anju passed 4^th jump. Fifth jump was 6.38m, slight improvement and in the final jump Anju lost her lead to Chinese Chen but pulling all power together Anju failed to surpass Chen and jumped to 6.37m. Overall Anju finished on the 2^nd place with 6.38m while Chinese Chen Yaling won the contest with 6.39m. M.A. Prajusha of India won her maiden international medal with 6.09m