Sprint running is what keeps Elakkiyadasan going

Sprint running is what keeps Elakkiyadasan going

Pune: Every emerging sprinter may not become a world beater, but such has been the situation that the famous Jamaican surname ‘Bolt’ is being used as sobriquet for even an upstart, but Elakkiyadasan would have nothing of it even as he has made sprint running his bread winner.

“My life depends on 100 metre runs and nothing beyond that though long jump is something that I intend to experiment with,” Southern Railway runner Elakkiyadasan told Sakal Times after winning silver medal in the day’s Blue Riband event at the 85th All-India Railway Athletics Championships at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi here on Tuesday.

The men’s 100m dash followed soon after the women’s dash that was marred by an unsavoury incident as the winner—Chandralekha from Southern Railway crash landing in the follow up run soon after crossing the finish line. Inexplicably there was no spot ambulance arranged by the organisers, Central Railway. Chandralekha suffered bruises on her shoulder as the ill-maintained synthetic track hardly provided any cushion.

Sudhakar wins men’s 100m

As the men got ready for the dash it was Southern Railway sprinter Elakkiyadasan who pushed ahead first despite getting a bad start. At the finish line too it seemed Elakkiyadasan, who was in Lane 3 crossed it first but the photo finish camera declared South-Central Railway’s Sudhakar as the rightful winner in 10.56 seconds.

Elakkiyadasan was home in 10.60 way ahead of Pranjwal (10.68) of the Integral Coach Factory.

“I was not happy with my start, but I gave my best to overcome and made up midway through,” said the Tiruchi-based Elakkiyadasan.

After graduating with English as his subject from Chennai’s Loyola College, Elakkiyadasan impressed the Railway talent spotters, who picked him under sports quota for recruitment.

“I am here for a long stay as I can’t think of doing anything than running,” said Elakkiyadasan, who won the medal in his very first meet.

Overall, Railway units from South and North dominated the first day beginning with 5000m runs early in the morning when Arun Kumar of Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala won in 14 minutes 23.80 seconds beating Virender Kumar Pal (14:31.21) of North Central Railway.

L Suriya of Southern Railway snapped the gold medal over the same distance in women’s run.

Later in the day Ajay Kumar Saroj of North Eastern Railway and PU Chitra of Southern Railway won the 1500 metre runs after the official opening ceremony.

Results:
Men:
100m: 1 Sudhakar (SouthCentral Rly) 10.56s; 2. Elakkiyadasan (Southern Rly) 10.60; 3. Pranjwal (Northern Rly) 10.68.
400m: 1 V. Vellayathevan (ICF) 47.82s; 2. Ravinder (NorthWestern Rly) 48.08; 3. Natwar Singh (NorthWestern Rly) 48.29.
1500m: 1. Ajay Kumar Saroj (NorthEastern Rly) 3:49.97; 2. Sajeesh Joseph (Southern Rly) 3:52.20; 3. Arun Kumar (RCF Kapurthala) 3:52.71.
5000m: 1. Arun Kumar (RCF Kapurthala) 14 mins 23.80 sec; 2. Virender Kumar Pal (NorthCentral Rly) 14:31.21; 3. Vishnu Veer Singh (RCF Kapurthala) 14:38.81.
Triple jump: 1. Kamal Raj (Southern Rly) 15.49m; 2. Karthik BI (SouthWestern Rly) 14.73; 3. Raja Oommen (Western Rly) 14.24.
Shot put: 1. Karanveer Singh (Northern Rly) 17.81m; 2. Sunil Kumar (Western Rly) 16.47; 3. Karanjit Singh (Northern Rly) 15.78.
Hammer throw: 1. Pargat Singh (RCF Kapurthala) 61.59m; 2. Sukhdev Singh (Northern Rly) 61.27; 3 Bhupendra Singh (Northern Rly) 56.92.

Women:
100m: 1. Chandralehka (Southern Rly) 11.47s; 2. Himashree Roy (Eastern Rly) 11.63; 3. Priyanka Kalagi (Western Rly) 11.67.
400m: 1. Ammu K (Central Rly) 54.71s; 2. Prachi (DMW Patiala) 55.11; 3. Chavi Sharavath (Southern Rly) 55.21.
1500m: 1. PU Chitra (Southern Rly) 4:30.75; 2. Lili Das (Eastern Rly) 4:31.29; 3. Shipra Sarkar (Eastern Rly) 4:34.64.
5000m: 1. L Suriya (Southern Rly) 16:23.39; 2. Parul Chaudhary (Western Rly) 16:23.94; 3. Preethi  (SouthCentral Rly) 16:25.99.
High jump: 1. Rubina (NorthWestern Rly) 1.81m; 2. Laimwn Narzary (North Forinter Rly) 1.76; 3. Sonu (Western Rly) 1.76.
Pole vault: 1. Krishna Rachan (Western Rly) 3.75m; 2. Dija Chandran (Central Rly) 3.60m; 3. Mariyan Jaison (SouthWestern Rly) 3.50m.
Discus throw: 1. Kamalpreet Kaur (DMW Patiala) 58.23m; 2. Parmila (NorthWestern Rly) 48.28; 3. Priyanka (SouthWestern Rly) 42.70.

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