Double delight for Loganathan in nationals

Surya, who had earlier got the better of Asian Games gold medallist, Preeja Sreedharan, in the 10,000 meter race, held off the challenge of Railways' O P Jaisha and LIC's Monika Athare.

Surya took 17:29.94 seconds, about two seconds better than Jaisha (17:31.13) and Monika Athare (LIC) 17:32.87.

In the men's race, Asian junior champion Rahul Kumar Pal claimed the gold, while Inderjeet Patel of ONGC and Nitinder Singh of Services took the silver and bronze respectively.

Tintu Luka, who was adjudged the best woman athlete of the championship, comfortably won the women's 800m in 2:04.69, but her junior in Usha School of Athletics, Jessy Joseph, was beaten to the finish line by Jyoti Rani.

Jessy managed to finish the race in 2:31.41. S R Bindu claimed the silver in 2:10.40 while Rani clocked 2:10.72.

High jumper Jithin C Thomas of Services was named the best men athlete of the championship.

Tamil Nadu swept the top three places in high hurdles (Ed: 110m) as Arumugam Suresh romped home for his second senior national title in 14.21 secs. J Surendhar (14.35s) and K Prem Kumar (14.59s) were the other two athletes who made Tamil Nadu proud by taking the silver and bronze respectively.

As expected, M M Anchu easily won the women's 100m hurdles in 14.40 secs. Meghana Shetty, the 16-year-old Karnataka girl who represented ONGC here, could not repeat her heats timing and finished third behind C T Raji. MORE