Lacklusture National Open Athletics Championship ends

Kochi, Sep 11 (UNI) The 48th Open National Athletics Championship,marked by heavy rainfall and low performances, ended here today with reigning champions Railways once again stamping their supremacy with an overall tally of 60 medals, including 27 golds.

The championship, held under floodlights on the synthetic track of the Maharaja's College Grounds here, saw only one national and one meet record being set in the Men's 110m Hurdles and Women's Triple Jump respectively.

The Railways, though dominating the meet, saw their medal tally dip from 75 they garnered at the 47th Championship at Jamshedpur last year.

Their gold haul dipped to 27 from 29 last year while the silver went down to 19 from 25 and bronze to 14 from 21 at Jamshedpur.

Services, with a total of 18 medals, came a distant second with six gold, four silver and eight bronze.

Hosts Kerala came in third with 11 medals, which included three gold, three silver and five bronze.

At Jamshedpur, Services had got 16 with a tally of 5-6-5 while the Police team was third with 11 at 3-3-5.

Joseph G Abraham of Railways, who got the gold in the Men's 400m hurdles today with a timing of 50.93, was judged the best male athlete of the 48th Championship while Sinimole Paulose of ONGC, who bagged two golds, repeated her Jamshedpur achievement to be adjudged the best female athlete at Kochi also.

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