Thaindian News

By Sirshendu Panth
New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) Long distance runner Kavita Raut gave India its maiden Commonwealth Games medal from the track by winning a historic bronze in the women’s 10,000 metres at the majestic Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here Friday.

Kavita finished with a timing of 33:05.28 minutes in front of some 30,000 spectators, who roared in unison to cheer the 25-year-old ONGC employee who ended the gruelling 25-lap race behind Kenyans Kwamboka Momanyi and Chepkwemo Changeywo, who took the gold and silver.

Kwamboka clocked 32:34.11 mins while Chepkwemo traversed the distance in 33:05.28 mins.

Kavita, a tribal girl from Harsul near Nashik in Maharashtra, became the first Indian women to win an individual medal from the track event in the Commonwealth Games.

In the last edition in Melbourne, the women’s 4X400 metres relay team had won a silver while long jumper Anju Bobby George and discus thrower Seema Antil had won the silver and bronze.

Kavita set the pace in the initial stages but then dropped to the fourth position with England’s Charlotte Purdue overtaking her.

It was only in the last couple of laps that Kavita, who had earlier won the 5000m bronze in the Asian Athletics Championships at Guangzhou last year, again went ahead of Charlotte, who finished fourth.

However, Charlotte was in hot pursuit of the Indian girl, a former Railway employee. But Kavita, despite looking a trifle tired, kept her cool and widened the gulf with the English woman. As she neared the home stretch, it became clear that India was on way to a medal.

The applause reached crscendo, with even the volunteers and the media people joining in, and finally the bronze was hers.

Someone from the crowd gave Kavita a tri-colour, with which she draped herself and ran a victory lap, as Indian officials and coaches hugged each other in joy.

“It is a great feeling. I am extremely happy,” said Kavita, thanking her personal coach Vijender for her success. “Without him, this would not have been possible,” she said.

National record holder Preeja Sreedharan and Lalita Babar, the other Indians in fray, finished a disappointing seventh and eighth respectively. Preeja clocked 33:43.91, much below her national record of 32:04.41, while Babar clocked 35:03.49 in the field of eight.

In field event, women’s triple jumper Prajusha Maliakkal created a new national record with a 13.72 metre jump, but that mark was only good for a fourth place finish.

Jamaica’s Kaye Smith took the gold (14.10 metre), while Ayanna Alexander of Trinidad and Tobago got the silver (13.91 metre) and the bronze went to Tabia Charles (13.84 metres) of Canada.

Mandeep Kaur of India took the sixth spot in women’s 400m. Amantle Montsho of Botswana got the gold by setting a Games record of 50.10 seconds erasing the feat of Jamaica’s Alexandra Angela Richards, who had completed the distance in 50.17 secs twelve years back in 1998 at Kuala Lumpur.

Folashade Abugan of Nigeria (51.39 secs) won the silver while Tabitha Pompey of Guyana earned the bronze in 51.65 secs. For both the silver and bronze medallists, it was their season’s best performance.