Athletes clock well at meet

Jamshedpur, June 8: They came out of the fourth leg of Indian Grand Prix athletics meet without any medals but Somra Oraon and Ajit Kumar can draw consolation from the fact that they have the best timings as the cadets of Tata Athletics Academy.

The two rubbed shoulders with some of country’s best runners in the men’s 800m of the championship and under sultry conditions Oraon and Kumar came up with 1:54.05 and 1:51.95 seconds, respectively.

Oraon, a talented athlete from Gumla, broke his own record of 1:54.60 seconds set at the Youth Nationals in May last year, while Kumar bettered his 1:54.88 seconds that he registered at the inter-zonal meet in Jamshedpur last year.

A day after blazing the synthetic tracks, it was time for Oraon and Kumar to get involved in the regular grind under coach Bagicha Singh, Arjuna awardee and a former international. “It was a good outing for me given the fact that I managed to set the best timing competing against some of the best athletes in the country,” said Oraon (19).

Kumar, who hails from Uttar Pradesh, said that he was happy with the way things unfolded in the tourney. “I was determined to better my timing at the Grand Prix. I was fit and raring to go. Watching the line up may have pepped me up,” he said, while stretching out in the late afternoon.

Coach Singh praised the cadets for their effort and said: “It is no mean feat to clock 1:54.05 and 1:51.95 seconds when they are competing with the best the country has to offer. Both the athletes have been putting up good performances in the national circuit.”

And they improved their shows by leaps and bounds after joining forces with the academy. The improvement showed as they slowly picked up their paces and got the right results. Oraon started by claiming the 800m gold in the East Zone athletic meet in September 2007, clocking 2:00.5 seconds. However, the teenager tripped in the inter-zonal competition, finishing fourth with 2:01.90 seconds. The youngster has also claimed 1500m gold in the Junior Nationals, besides securing the silver in the Youth Nationals.

Kumar has picked 800m gold in the Junior Federation Cup with a timing of 1:56.30 seconds. He followed it with a similar feat, this time at the East Zone meet., crossing the breasting the tape at 1:55.00 seconds. Kumar went on to bag the silver (1:56.10 seconds) at the Junior Nationals.
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