Kerala's Joseph rewrites record books in 400m hurdles

Chennai, Nov 3 (UNI) Emerging talent on the national horizon, Kerala's Joseph Abraham stole the limelight, creating a new national record in the men's 400 m hurdles in the 48th Inter-State Senior National Athletic championship here today.

The Keralite, who is with the CRPF Delhi, clocked 50.22 secs to lower P Shankar's standing record of 50.39 made at Bangalore in May this year.

Punjab's Satinder singh bagged the silver way behind Joseph with a time of 52.21, while Tamil Nadu's Victor Jeba Singh claimed the bronze at 52.32.

Joseph, who himself described the event as a one-horse race, said the track was alright in spite of the drench it received due to rains. ''I would have performed better, if there was better competition'', he said.

Joseph was a bronze medallist in SAF games at Colombo and the Asian Grand Prix.

On a day when records were at a premium, Tamil Nadu's A Arvind emerged the winner in the 100 m dash with a time 10.49 secs, followed by Vishal Saxena of Uttar pradesh (10.59) and Vilas Neelkant of Karnataka (10.67).

Women's 100 m, Poonam Tomar (Delhi) clocked 11.81 secs for the gold. H M Jyoti of Karnataka (11.97) and Deepti Jose of Kerala (12.03) bagged the silver and bronze respectively.

In the women's 400 m hurdle was a close affair with Harani Chandrasekhar of Karnataka bagging the gold with a time of 1 min 01.05 secs. She pipped Pooja Jakkar (delhi), who clocked 1:01.26, at the post, while Sapinder Kaur of Punjab bagged the bronze at 1:01.66.

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