Bahadur Singh, Anju George
hog the limelight

Punjab's Bahadur Singh and Tamil Nadu's Anju B George hogged the limelight in the third and final National athletics meet in Chennai on Tuesday evening.

Shot putter Bahadur Singh of Police hurled the iron spheroid to a distance of 19.61 metres, his best effort this season, to clinch the gold.

Bahadur had earlier won the gold at the Delhi and Bangalore meets as well.

Anju also won her third long jump title in a row when she leapt to a distance of 6.45 metres.

Hot favourite K Beenamol, the lone Indian athlete who qualified for the semi-finals at the Sydney Olympics, won the 800 metres easily. She clocked 52.39 seconds. Udayalakshmi of Andhra Pradesh timed 53.82 seconds while Manjit Kaur of Punjab came third in 54 seconds.

In the discus throw for men, India's strongman Shakti Singh was relegated to second position by Hirdyanand of Police.

Haryana's Bhupinder Singh won the men's 400 metres, winning the event in 46.33 seconds.

In the 4x400 metres relay for men and women, which was run as a practice event, AAFI's 'A' teams emerged winners.