www.BPODigest.com i-Vortal

Anjus New National record - not enough to win medal

Anju Bobby George leaped to a new national mark, which was not enough to land her a medal in the women's long jump event at the Olympic Stadium here on Friday, while the national women's 4 x 400m relay team surprised everyone to make it to Saturday's title round.

The 27-year-old Anju, with the whole country's fervently praying for a podium finish, had a flying start in the long jump final with a leap of 6.83m, thus bettering her own national mark by a whopping 9 cm.

However, the Customs officer appeared tense and the pressure of expectations seemed to have weighed down her as she gradually slid down the perch and hit a low of 6.61m in her fifth try before fouling her sixth and final attempt to go out of medal contention with a sixth place finish.

Anju, ranked sixth in the world, did her best to become the first Indian medallist in athletics, but her try was not good enough.

Even as the long jump event was in progress, the women's 4x400m relay squad of Rajwinder Kaur, K M Beenamol, Chitra K Soman and national one-lap record holder Manjit Kaur dipped under the Indian mark to storm into the final by finishing third in their semi-final heat.

Source: Anju crashes out, relay team rally hopes - The Times of India