Hosts retain overall general championship at State Athletic Meet

Pune, Sep 4 (UNI) Hosts Pune district exerted their superiority in no uncertain terms, by retaining the overall general championship for the eighth year in succession in the Pune Festival Senior State Athletic championships which concluded at the Shiv Chhatarapati grounds in Mahalunge- Balewadi, near Pune today.

While the Pune men aggregated a tally of 56 points their women outperformed them by accumulating a tally of 70 points, taking their overall tally to 126 points.

The hosts owed their success to the brilliant performances put up by young aspiring sprinter Rucha Patil, who set a record in the sprint double, and Shiv Chhatrapati awardee Rakhi Gaud.

Pamkaja Kolhe also posted a fruitfull double, winning the triple and long-jump events, while Krishna Kumar Rana made a remarkable come-back after suffering a fracture, to win the gold in the men's long-jump event.

The concluding days honours was shared by Rashmi Gurnule, the long distance runner from Nagpur and Amravati sprinter Sayed Shoaib who today won the men's 200 meteres sprint getting the better off Deepak Basarwadkar of Pune and Santosh Anerao of Nanded, clocking 21.6 seconds. Deepak took the silver and Santosh the bronze.

Rashmi made the 1500 meters women's event clocking 4 minutes 54 seconds while Ashwini Dukandar of Sangli and Shalakha Waikar of Oune claimed the silver and the bronze respectively.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi (MP) will be the guest of honour at the final prize distribution ceremony which will be held tomorrow.

Maharashtra's junior squad which will participate in the West Zone Junior Athletic Championship, that is slated to be held from September 17 to 19 at the same venue, will be finalised tomorrow.

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