Kerala, Services rule the roost in National Games athletics

Ranchi, Feb 19 (PTI) Kerala bagged two gold medals evenas Services broke two records in athletics competition of the34th National Games here today.

Joseph clocked 1:48.43s en route to the gold as Punjab''sSatnam Singh (1:48.48s) and Rajasthan''s Ghamanda Singh(1:49.03s) won the silver and bronze respectively in the men''s800m.

Kerala''s second gold came in women''s 4x100m relay whenShanthini V, Neethu Rajan, Shamna Muhammed and Priya PKclocked 46.49s for the title.

Madhya Pradesh''s Sini Alex, Viji Vijayan, Ambili Thomasand Merlink Thomas timed 47.50s while Punjab quartet of NavjotKaur, Navpreet Kaur, Goldi Shahi, Rucha Patil clocked 47.53sfor the silver and bronze respectively.

Services won the men''s 4x100m relay when the quartet ofHemant Kirulkar, Joseph MG, Sameer Mon and Nitin Kumarclocking 39.94s that shattered Delhi''s nine-year-old record of40.72s.

Andhra Pradesh''s P Pushparaju, K Pavan Kumar, MManikandarai and Abdul Najeeb Qureshi won the gold with40.59s. Kerala bagged the bronze through Dibin Eldhose, FrejiJose, Sujith Kuttan and Renjith KR with a timing of 40.77s.

Jaiveer Singh of Services clocked 8:48.68s to shatter thePradeep Kumar record of 8:58.10s in the 3000m steeplechase.

Manipur bagged the silver through Th Sanjit Luwang whoclocked 8:49.29s while Elam Singh of Services timed 8:55.4sfor the bronze medal.

Delhi''s Vipin Kasana hurled the javelin to 77.52m enroute to the gold even as UP''s Rohit Kumar (75.03s) andServices'' Kasinath Naik (73.14s) took the silver and bronze

Haryana''s Sushma Devi clocked 2:18.17s for the gold inwomen''s 800m where Bengal''s Pratima Tudu (2:18.42s) and TN''s NC Mohanal (2:18.78s) settled for the silver and bronzerespectively.

Karnataka''s Kyathi won the pole vault event with anattempt of 3.65m as Jharkhand''s Taposi Nandy (3.50m) andKerala''s Dija KC (3.30m) bagged the silver and bronzerespectively.