Seema Antil finishes disappointing third in Discus Throw

New Delhi, Oct 7 (UNI) National record holder Seema Antil finished a disappointing third in the women's Discus throw while Railways' 4X100m men's quartet missed the national record by a whisker on the fourth day of the National Open Athletics Championship here today.

Antil could just clear 54.20m which was way below her national record of 64.64m which she created in Chennai in June, 2004. Krishna Poonia of Railways won the Gold with 60.10m which she cleared in her first attempt while Punjab's Harwant Kaur won the Silver with 54.35m. The meet record of the event (61.17m) stood in the name of Neelam Singh Dogra.

In men's 4X100m Relay race, Vishal Saxena, Amit Kumar Saha, Vilas NeelGund and A Aravind of Railways clocked 39.89sec but fell short of national record 39.36sec which the Indian team created in Busan Asian Games in 2002.

Services team won the silver clocking 40.87sec while Jharkhand won bronze with 41.89sec.

Railways' Monisha Dey also came very close to breaking the meet record in the women's Triple Jump, clearing 13.33m in her last leapt which is just a shade below meet mark 13.35m made here in September 2002 even though it was well below Anju Bobby George's national record of 13.67m set in 2002.

Compatriot Salamma Antony was way behind at with a jump of 12.70m to claim the Silver while and another Railwaywoman Kalpana Das took the Bronze with 12.60m.

Meanwhile, another national record holder Gurdev Singh of Services performed below par but still won men's 20km walk with a timing of 1:27:58.4 which is below his record of 1:25:21.70 set in Chennai in July 2000.

The Silver and Bronze in the event was won by Services'P S Jalan clocking 1:29:32.0 and Gurmeet Singh of Police with 1:30:48.4.

In men's Pole Vault also, meet record holder V V Geesh Kumar of Police produced a below par performance even though he won the event with 4.85m which was way behind his best 5.05m which he cleared in Hyderabad in November last year.

The national record in the event stand in the name of Vijay Pal Singh (5.10m).

UNI PDS GC2233