Kavita steals limelight after a messy start of athletics event

Athletics competition got a messy start at the 34th National Games with technical officials clueless about the results even an hour after the events.

Ranchi: Athletics competition got off to a messy start at the already chaotic 34th National Games with technical officials clueless about the results even an hour after the events, even as tribal girl from Maharashtra Kavita Raut hogged the limelight at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Wednesday.

Raut outpaced star runner Preeja Sreedharan in the 10,000m to avenge her Asian Games gold medal loss as Lalita Babar of Maharashtra won the bronze at the Mega Sports Complex. With some technical problems affecting the system, the officials were clueless about the result which was provided more than an hour after the competition. Kavita did not have any problem beating her rival Preeja of Kerala as she clocked 34:28.26s en route to the gold.Preeja stopped the clock at 34:29.79 while Maharashtra also bagged the bronze through Lalita who clocked 36:08.05. Suresh Kumar of Uttar Pradesh clocked 29:59.65 for the men`s 10,000m gold as Soji Mathew of Kerala won the silver with a timing of 30:02.48 while Sunil Kumar of Haryana bagged the bronze clocking 30:03.24. International shot putter Sourabh Vij bagged the first athletics gold. Delhi athlete Vij, who was mired in a doping controversy ahead last year`s Commonwealth Games, had a throw of 18.90 metres at the Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium at the Mega Sports Complex for the gold medal. Om Prakash of Haryana won the silver with a throw of 18.13 while Jagroop Singh (Punjab) bagged the bronze with 18.00.In women`s long jump, Mayookha Johny of Kerala made an effort of 6.26m for the gold. Bengal took the silver and bronze through Shradha Ghule (6.15) and Piyali Paul (5.91). PTI