Rajesh produces his best quartermile performance

Annu Rani, Rajesh Ramesh, Priya Mohan

RANCHI

“He is almost out,” said star quartermiler Amoj Jacob as he gave support to a wobbly Rajesh Ramesh after the men’s 400m final of the 26th Federation Cup athletics at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Tuesday.

Rajesh had indeed given it his all, shocking National record-holder Muhammed Anas and Muhammed Ajmal to take the title with a personal best of 45.75s (previous best: 46.09s) and become the Indian leader in the quartermile this year.

“I expected a personal best but I thought it would be something like 45.90s. This is a big surprise,” said the 24-year-old from Tamil Nadu who pulled the second-placed Ajmal to a personal best too. Anas was third.

The day was packed with controversy, suspense and long wait. Priya Mohan, who finished second in the women’s 400m behind Aishwarya Mishra, was declared the winner. Aishwarya won the race comfortably in 52.57s but Priya filed a successful protest, claiming that the Maharashtra runner had cut the lane in the race.

“She (Aishwarya) cut the lane in the second corner,” said Priya, who fought hard to stave off a strong challenge from Sonia Baishya, and nearly one and half hours after the race, the verdict came in her favour and Aishwarya was disqualified.

There was much controversy after the men’s 100m too and the results were out only around 40 minutes after the final. “No one knew what was happening, I think the photo-finish camera was not working,” said Amiya, who had to wait long before being declared winner.