Rain hinders athletes in action, winner Priya Mohan unhappy with timing

Express News Service

BENGALURU: As the evening session of the track and field events started, the heavens opened up. It rained cats and dogs, accompanied by thunderstorms, forcing the then ongoing events to a sudden halt. Only one or two disciplines were completed in the evening at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium before rain played spoilsport on Sunday.

Despite the wait, the showers did not stop and the competition eventually kicked off with the 1500m decathlon around 7 pm under the slight drizzle, which picked up further. It was evident that the athletes in the next few events were watchful of the slippery conditions and hence producing their best was difficult.

When it came to the 400m women’s event, where Priya H Mohan, who is one of India’s best woman quarter-miler in the country, and the favourite in her pet event, was made to wait in the pouring rain. In fact, when everything was ready, the starting gun failed to fire twice in wet conditions, forcing the athletes to head to the call room. When the race finally started, it was Priya, who clinched gold with ease with a timing of 54.43, which is way below her personal best, but she was not happy with her timings.

“I had come to the competition fully prepared and was looking to clock a good timing. But the conditions were such that I could not produce the timing I wanted. Also, had to go back and come back (due to rain and gun failure), and that did not help me at all before the race,” said Priya, who was almost in tears after not being able to give her best.

In the morning session, Akshdeep Singh created a new meet record in the 20km race walk with a timing of 1:26.44.00.

However, in the other disciplines, there were no rain obstacles with most of it being played out before evening. It was archer Sachin Gupta, who was at his menacing best, grabbing three golds in three finals in the recurve archery. Gupta, a student at Kurukshetra University, kicked off his personal flurry in the men’s singles, beating Yashdeep Bhoge 6-4. An hour later, one gold became two, Gupta teamed up with Kirti to win the mixed recurve. Later, he had added the men’s team recurve gold to his tally.  

In hockey, Bangalore City University defended their title in the men’s competition. Harish Mutagar scored a brace to help the team clinch a 3-0 win.