Golden double for Loganathan at National athletics

Suriya Loganathan achieved a golden double, winning the 5,000 metres, at the 52nd National Open Athletics Championships in Chennai on Thursday.

The Tamil Nadu lass, who had earlier got the better of Asian Games gold medallist Preeja Sreedharan in the 10,000 metres, held off a strong challenge from Railways' O P Jaisha and LIC's Monika Athare to emerge triumphant.

Loganathan clocked 17:29.94 seconds, while Jaisha was second in 17:31.13s and Monika Athare third in 17:32.87.

Tintu Luka, who was adjudged the best woman athlete of the meet, comfortably won the women's 800m in 2:04.69 seconds. S R Bindu claimed silver in 2:10.40s while Rani clocked 2:10.72s.

Jessy Joseph, Luka's junior at the Usha School of Athletics, clocked 2:31.41s.

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

Tamil Nadu swept the top three places in the 110m high hurdles, 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) bagged silver and bronze respectively.

As expected, M M Anchu easily won the women's 100m hurdles, clocking 14.40 seconds.

Meghana Shetty, the 16-year-old Karnataka girl who represented ONGC, could not repeat her heats' timing and finished third, behind C T Raji.

Kumaravel Premkumar, the only Indian medallist at this year's Asian Indoor championships at Hangzhou (China), proved his mettle again, beating Ankit Sharma and Mohd Arshad.

Premkumar gave Tamil Nadu its second gold with a leap of 7.72 metres.

The men's 200m dash saw LIC's Dharambir winning by a huge margin. He clocked 21.00 seconds, while second-placed Manikanda Arumugam (Railways) was 0.8 secs behind.

Bebi Sumaya gave Karnataka its first gold by taking the women's 200m crown in 24.91 seconds. Defending champion Asha Roy (Railways) finished third behind LIC's V Santhini.

The Indian Railways' success run continued as it annexed the overall championship with 327 points. The Services, which finished runners-up with 138 points, had the satisfaction of taking the men's team title.