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Sahana raises bar, wins London ticket
High jumper Sahana Kumari booked a berth for the London Games by clearing the Olympic 'B' standard qualification mark of 1.92m on the opening day of the Senior National Inter-State Athletics Meet in Hyderabad.
High jumper Sahana Kumari booked a berth for the London Games by clearing the Olympic 'B' standard qualification mark of 1.92m on the opening day of the Senior National Inter-State Athletics Meet in Hyderabad.
Sahana is the country's 14th athlete to book a berth for the Olympics. On her way to winning gold, the 30-year old Karnataka jumper also erased the previous national record of 1.91m, set by Bobby Aloysius in 2004.
The record is also Sahana's personal best. In May, during the Asian Grand Prix meet, she had cleared 1.89m, but failed to go beyond that. However, other top athletes failed to make a mark on Saturday. In men's 100m, Dharambir of Haryana clocked a modest 10.51 seconds. The performance was far inferior to the Olympic 'B' qualification mark of 10.24 seconds.
The sub-standard results also put in jeopardy the Athletics Federation of India's hopes of fielding the men's 4x100m relay squad for the Asian All Stars Meet, slated in Almaty from June 30.
