Sahana qualifies for London Olympics

The effort not only booked her the London ticket but also got Sahana the national record and meet record. (TOI Photo)

HYDERABAD: After battling her nerves to clear 1.88m on her third and last attempt, high jumper Sahana Kumari soared over the bar set at 1.92m on her first try to join the Indian squad for the London Olympics on the opening day of the 52nd National Inter-State athletics on Saturday.

The effort not only booked her the London ticket but also got Sahana the national record and meet record. The previous national mark was 1.91m set by Bobby Aloysius set in Chennai in 2002.

After missing the B mark (1.92) at the Asian GP series in May, when she got stuck at 1.89m, Sahana reaped the rewards of her hard work and determination as she cleared the qualification height with some more to spare at the GMC Balayogi stadium.

It was a pity that Sahana's effort came in front of an empty stadium after the start of women's high jump got delayed by almost two hours. In the end, she did her Ukrainian coach Nikitin Evgen proud by her superb leap.

"I got a bit tense when the start was delayed but I'm happy to qualify. It was a seven-year wait for me to qualify for the Olympics. I should thank my coach because after a long time we have got an excellent coach," the 31-year-old Railways employee said. Married to sprinter BG Nagaraj, Sahana has a seven-year-old daughter Pavana.

Fastest man disappears: The fastest man of the meet Dharambir immediately ran into controversy when he disappeared after beating the big names in the 100m final. The Haryana athlete clocked 10.51 seconds to push Md Abdul Qureshi of AP (10.59s) and Krishan Kumar of Maharashtra (10.60s). Apparently, Dharambir, who was not in the camp in Bangalore, didn't figure in NADA's list of athletes to be randomly tested.

NADA project officer BJ Verma, who headed a team of 10 officials, admitted that in all the events there would only be random testing. But Verma couldn't confirm whether Dharambir was tested.

There was drama in the women's 100m final too with Federation Cup winner Manisha jumping the gun. The restart saw seasoned campaigner Satti Geeta winning the first gold for the hosts clocking 12 seconds. Rising Kerala athlete Anchu MM took the silver in 12.18 seconds followed by Ruma Sarkar of Bengal in 12.37s.

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