Sushmita qualify for Beijing Olympics

Bhopal, Feb 27 (UNI) Sushmita Singha Roy became the first athlete to acquire the qualification norm for Beijing Olympic Games in heptathlon at the 14th Federation Cup Athletics meet here today.

The Bengal athlete qualified with her best effort to acquire the B standard after getting 5866 points in the seven events she competed here since yesterday. The qualifying standard is 5800 points.

Soma Biswas, her teammate missed the bus by a whisker when she managed to secure 5779 points.

''I am happy to have secured the standard here,'' said Sushmita after her event. ''I hope to do well in the near future.'' Her coach Kuntal Roy was also happy that his ward has qualified for the Olympics this year. ''I hope she does well throughout the season,'' said Dr Roy.

Her sequence of attempts are 14.39(100MH), 1.73(HJ), 11.44(SP), 23.97(200M), 6.25(LJ), 40.11(JT), 2:18.28(800M).

In 800m women, Sinimole Paulose fetched her first gold of the meet when she touched the tape at 2:03.25s ahead of Sushma of Delhi (2:03.81s) and Bindhu SR of Kerala (2:08.48s).

Sinimole, however, did not obtain the qualifying norm for Beijing in this event. ''After the gold, I hope I will do well in the 1500m,'' she said.

In men's 800m, Rajeev Rameshan of Kerala won the gold with a timing of 1:54.15 followed by state-mate Sajeesh Joseph (1:54.18).

Punjab Police's Gurmeet Singh claimed the 20km walk gold in the morning clocking 1:34:04.23. Ashok Kumar Patel took the silver with a timing of 1:34:36.05s.

In javelin, Armyman Kashinath Naik won the gold with a throw of 73.02m.

UNI XC HSB RAR HS1823