Ernakulam regain crown

PALA : Powered by their middle and long distance runners, Ernakulam regained their supremacy in the State Schools Athletics Championship as the 61st edition drew to a close at the Pala Municipal Stadium on Monday. Save the walkers, who put them atop the standings on the second day, defending champions  Palakkad fell short of ammunition to pose a serious threat this time. While the final day’s spoils were shared by various teams, favourites Ernakulam managed to maintain their lead at more than 70 points, ending up with a total of 258 points.

Making amends for last year’s defeat at Thenhipalam, where Palakkad had bypassed them by a slender margin of eight points, Ernakulam put up an improved show to walk away with the Gold Cup for the 12th time. Starting the day at their overnight tally of 205 points, compared to Palakkad’s 134, Ernakulam nixed any remaining hopes of a Palakkad resurgence on the final day as was the scenario last time. The champions were aided in chief by Mar Basil HSS, Kothamangalam, who pocketed 75 points to bag the title of the champion school for the fifth time. 

Shiby Mathew, the Mar Basil coach, credited the success to her trainees’ hard work. 
“They diligently followed my schedule and worked hard,” she said, adding the win could silence her critics.Earlier this year, a bunch of trainees from Mar Basil moved to GVHSS, Maneed - along with throws coach Charles E Edapattu - after he had developed differences with the management. 

However, the points Mar Basil collected here was well below what they had scored in the last edition. At Thenhipalam, they had bagged pole position with 117 points. The dip in points, in fact, came as a result of hitherto feeble teams gaining in strength as the points and medals got shared between them. St Joseph’s HS, Pullurampara finished behind Mar Basil with 63 points. Propelled by the Malabar Sports Academy, the Kozhikode school fielded local talent, and they can take a lot of heart from this inspiring outing.

“It’s our policy that we should cater to the local kids,” said Pullurampara coach Tomy Cherian. “The academy was envisaged with this factor at its core. So we are happy with the performance.” The final day witnessed four national record-bettering performances. Abhisek Mathew of Mar Basil clocked 1:52.88 in the junior boys’ 800m to win gold.

In the process, he eclipsed Muhammed Afsal’s 1:54.55 mark. Sacred Heart HSS, Thevara’s Gayathri Sivakumar cleared 1.66m to better Lizbeth Caroline Joseph’s 1.65m mark in the junior girls’ high jump. Anas N of HS Parli leapt 15.30m in the senior boys’ triple jump to better the previous national best of Harpreet Singh which stood at 15.09m.

Jishna M of Kalladi HS, in the senior girls’ high jump, did 1.71m to outshine Vanshika Sejwal’s 1.69m. Jishna was challenged by Ideal School’s Rubeena K A, who finally had to settle for silver with 1.68m. After Rubeena’s challenge was over, Jishna cleared the record height on her final attempt. All the aforementioned marks, except Gayathri’s are also new meet records. Two other performers - Ancy Sojan of Govt Fisheries HSS, Nattika (junior girls’ 200m) and Abhinav C of SAI, Thiruvananthapuram (junior boys’ 200m) - also entered their names in the meet record register.