Alloysious sets new high jump mark;
Anil Kumar fastest

National record holder Anil Kumar emerged the fastest man in the 31st National Games on Wednesday, but blamed the change in schedule for not being able to better the meet record he created on Tuesday.

The Services sprinter won the gold with the timing of 10.52 seconds in the final but fell short of his meet record of 10.49 seconds.

On Wednesday, in the semi-finals, he broke the earlier record of 10.54 seconds, set in 1997 by Amit Khanna of Delhi.

Anil had a good start and surged ahead of the rest without facing much competition from Punjab's Ajay Raj Singh, who clocked 10.62 seconds, and Sanjoy Ghose of Services, who timed 10.69 seconds.

"Normally in national and international meets, the semi-finals and final are held the same day. This was very unusual and disturbed my entire plans,'' he said, after his triumph.

Visibly disappointed, Anil said though he won the gold medal he was not satisfied with his winning performance.

''Winning gold is nothing new for me; there is no competition at the national level. The challenge for me is to break the meet and national record every time I take to the track,'' he added.

Bobby Alloysious betters high jump meet record

Bobby Alloysious of Kerala won the women's high jump, bettering the meet record by three centimeters.

She cleared 1.82 metres to establish the record, which was a good 10 centimetres more than what she achieved at the National meet in Madras, where she only ended up with a bronze.

Buoyed by the record, she tried to surpass the national mark with the bar raised to 1.87 metres but failed at all three attempts.

''I could not get the rhythm,'' she said, when asked about the reasons for her inability to eclipse the national mark.

"This is only my second competition this year; I am not in a Games mode, otherwise I could have done better,'' she added.

Bobby said she had targetted 1.90 metres for the national record but had a first go at 1.97 metres because she thought she would easily achieve the feat.

The silver in the event went to Shana Kumar of Kerala, who jumped 1.76 metres, while M Sangetha of Tamil Nadu (1.70 metres) cornered the bronze.

Arun D'Souza wins 3000m steeplechase

Arun D'Souza of Karnataka won the gold in the 3000 metres steeplechase,overcoming tough competition from seven other contestants, including Ramesh K Yadav, who won the event at the last edition of the Games.

D'souzas timing of 9.03.40 seconds was much below his personal best of 8.50 seconds, which he achieved at the World Railway Championships.

''I was taking it easy today as in the last National Games I was injured. I am now concentrating on the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games,'' D'Souza said.

The second and third spots went to Services. Rajesh Kumar won the silver, with the timing of 9.05.41 seconds, while Ranjan Kumar of Jharkhand bagged the bronze, with a timing of 9.07.35 seconds.

At the recently-concluded National meet the medal winners were placed in the same order.

Arun said he has set a target of 8.40 seconds for himself so that he could be among the medals at the Asian level.

Yadav could only manage sixth spot with the timing of 9.42.12 seconds, much below the 9.14.21 seconds he achieved in Manipur.

Upcoming thrower Hardeep Kaur of Punjab also hogged the limelight, setting a new meet record in the women's hammer throw while K M Binu of Kerala (men's 800 metres) and Ravina Antil of Haryana (women's 20 km walk) made their way into the record books with impressive performances.

Hardeep Kaur impressed while setting a new meet record in the women's hammer throw with an effort of 61.56 metres, eclipsing the previous record of statemate Surinderjit Singh (51.30 metres).

Kerala's K M Binu set a new meet record in the men's 800m run with a timing of 1:48.69 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of his statemate Anil Mathew, who had recorded 1:50.34 seconds in the last edition of the Games in Imphal.

The next three finishers - P S Primesh of Kerala, Tejkaran of Madhya Pradesh and P J Robin of Kerala - also managed to break the previous record.

In the women's 800m run, C Latha of Tamil Nadu claimed the honours though her timing was nowhere near Rosa Kutty's existing meet record of 2:03.08 seconds.

Latha manged to maintain her lead right through to clock 2:04.33 seconds and pocket the gold while the silver went to Punjab's Madhuri Singh, who recorded a timing of 2:04.42 seconds. Sunitha of Delhi had to be content with the bronze, finishing the race with an effort of 2:06.34 seconds.