Railways retained the overall title for the sixth year in a row with a tally of 50 medals on the concluding day in the 50th National open athletics championship here on Tuesday.
The highlight of the day was Maharashtra woman Kavita Raut’s shock win over national record holder Preeja Sreedharan of Railways in the 10,000m race with a new meet record.
Railways bagged 18 gold, 14 silver and 18 bronze medals, while hosts Kerala finished runners-up by collecting gold, six silver and two bronze.
The Railways athletes’ domination was total and they deservedly won the team championship in the men’s category with 19 medals and in the women’s with 31 medals.
Star triple jumper Ranjith Maheshwari of Railways who tallied 1,152 points and Kerala’s Tintu Luka with 1,125 points were adjudged the best among the men’s and women’s categories, respectively.
Kavita clocked 32:41.31 seconds to bag the 10,000m gold ahead of Preeja, who finished at 32:41.72 secs bettering her own meet record and Lalita Babar took the third slot with 35:13.76 secs. The earlier meet record was held by Preeja at 33:25.00 set in 2007.
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Mercedes not to appeal Schumi penalty
Paris, May 18: Formula One team Mercedes decided on Tuesday not to appeal the 20 second penalty imposed on seven-times champion Michael Schumacher in Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix. The penalty imposed on the German driver for overtaking Ferrari’s two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in the finishing straight saw him drop out of the points from sixth place to 12th. Schumacher had, he thought, acted within the new regulations laid down by the sport’s governing body FIA in being able to overtake once the safety car went off the track, but his former team Ferrari contested this.
“It was clear from our discussions with the race stewards after the race that they understood the reasons as to why we had given Michael Schumacher the green light but that ultimately they did not agree with it,” said Mercedes in a statement.
“Even if we are not happy with the result, we are happy that the FIA have accepted our reasons behind the move. But for the good of the sport the Mercedes stable will not appeal the decision.” — AFP