Sudha books berth in Moscow World Championship

Olympian Sudha Singh of Uttar Pradesh booked her berth in the Moscow World Championship with a new national mark in 3000 meter steeplechase for women in the 53rd National Athletics championship here tonight.
The day also witnessed Kerala men quartet comprising Anuroop John, Ranjith KG, Shameer and Rahul G Pillai winning the 4x100 meter relay in meet record time.
27-year-old Sudha Singh, hailing from Rae Bareli and working in Central Railway, achieved the feat with a superb effort of 9 minutes 45.60 seconds.
It turned out to be a surprise for Sudha when she learnt that she had done a 45 plus to qualify for the world championship.

Sudha crossed the Moscow World Championship 'B' standard of 9:48 secs. With little more effort, Sudha could have achieved the "A" standard, which is 9.43plus.
Harayana's Kirantiwari (10.32.94s) and Priyanka patel (UP-10.45.32s) claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.

2010 China Asian games title winner, Sudha, who made it to the London Olympics with a new national record (9.47.70secs) set in Spain last July, was eliminated in the heats in London clocking 9.48.86 secs.
Kerala men stood solidly to remain run away winners in record time in the 4x100 meter relay event by fraction of a second to hog the limelight.

Taking to their pet event soon after its women counterparts -- Neethu Rajan, Sini S, Priya PK, Merlin Joseph -- lived up to their standing winning the gold medal, Kerala men displayed cohesion in their strides and especially in exchange of batons.
In the Men's Pole Vault final, although Kerala's Jithin C Thomas and Nilkhil Chittarasu of Tamil Nadu came up with identical efforts of 2.17 meters, Jithin grabbed the gold for having set the mark in his first attempt compared to Nikhil's third try.