BENGAL (British India ) :

Calcutta:

Safikul Mondal and Rokeya Khatun emerged the fastest man and woman in the Amway 67th West Bengal State Athletic Championship on Sunday.

There were two meet records on the concluding day. Trisha Dhar set a meet mark in women’s U-20 heptathlon and East Bengal’s 4×400 U-20 relay team clinched the gold with a record performance.

North 24 Parganas emerged overall champions while East Bengal were runners-up. Nadia took the third spot.

Trisha, who is a first year student at Charu Chandra College, trains under Kuntal Roy at SAI campus and Sodepur Coaching Centre. The heptathlete, who accumulated 4218 points, broke the 21-year-old record set by another of Kuntal’s students, Soma Biswas. “I don’t get time to attend college regularly but Somadi’s husband Samir Bera, who works at Charu Chandra, has ensured that I don’t face problems… I haven’t spoken to Somadi yet,” said Trisha with a sheepish smile.

She had won the event last year too but an ankle injury had prevented her from performing at her best. She plans to participate in the Inter-state Open meet in Guntur later this month.

The East Bengal quartet of Chandan Barui, Santu Biswas, Sourav Ghosh and Sujoy Soren won the 4x400m relay with a record timing of 3:24.60. They bettered the record set last year by North 24 Parganas DSA (3:32.20).

Safikul has had a rich haul this time with three gold medals – 100m, 200m and 4x100m. The 21-year-old from Debagram in Nadia recorded 10.7 seconds edging out Tanmoy Chakraborty (10.8) in a photo finish. “I didn’t know I had won… Later I was informed by my coach,” he said. “I had a hamstring injury last month and haven’t fully recovered. There’s still tightness which prevents me from running at full tilt… I could have done much better had I been full fit,” said Safikul.

The women’s 100m gold is Rokeya’s second in this meet after having won the 100m hurdles. The Chapra girl, whose parents struggle to make ends meet, finished in 11.9 seconds.

“My parents wish I continue with the sport and that has kept me going. It pretty expensive to stay alone here. If I can finish in the top-4 in Inter-state Open meet, I will get a seat in the SAI hostel… That will help,” said the 20-year-old.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Front Page> Sports> Story / Monday – July 03rd, 2017