Karamjit Kaur sets Nat. pole vault mark

Punjab's Karamjit Kaur shattered the national record in the women's pole vault event as the seventh Federation Cup athletics championships concluded in Bangalore on Monday, with the Army and West Bengal bagging the men's and women's team championships respectively.

Delhi's Sandeep Sarkaria was declared the best male athlete and Southern Railway's K M Beenamol the best woman athlete of the country's premier athletic meet, held at the Sree Kanteerava stadium.

Karamjeet, a 22-year-old assistant sub-inspector with the Punjab Police, cleared a height of 3.15 metres to set a new mark, erasing her own record of 3.10 metres achieved in Calcutta last year.

On a good day for Punjab, Pritpal Singh created a new meet recordm with an effort of 16.05 metres, in the triple jump, obliterating the August 1999 record of Kerala's Roy M Mani (15.79).

Another meet record to fall was in the women's heptathlon event, where local girl, G G Pramila, representing Southern Railway, reigned supreme and rewrote her own mark (5,541 points, July 1998) collecting 5,825 points.

Meanwhile, Amateur Athletic Federation of India secretary Lalit Bhanot said the Indian team for the August 4 to 12 World championships, at Edmonton (Canada), would be announced in Delhi.