Shankar, Geetha best athletes

Tamil Nadu dethroned Punjab to lift the overall team championship in the MetLife National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championship.

On the last day, Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh's Gajanan Upadhyay and Rajasthan's Ghamanda Ram set meet records in pole vault and the 800 metres respectively.

Tamil Nadu logged 168 points to reign supreme, followed by Kerala (141) and Punjab (103) at the Sree Kanteerava stadium.

Kerala (71 points) lifted the title in the men's section and Tamil Nadu topped in the women's category with 126 points.

Andhra Pradesh's P Shankar, who was first in the men's 400 metres hurdles, clocking 50.97 seconds, was declared the best male athlete. His state-mate Sathi Geetha won the honour in the women's category. She had claimed gold in the 400 metres with a timing of 52.49 seconds.

Meanwhile, Upadhyay cleared 4.95 metres to lift the gold in the men's pole vault event. He erased the 4.91 metres mark, set by Vijay Pal Singh at Delhi in 1991.

Ghamanda Ram was home in one minute, 47.99 seconds in the men's 800 metres, obliterating the 1:48.18 mark set by K M Binu of Kerala in 2003.

Results: All finals:

Men:

Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyay (UP) 4.95 metres; 2. R Ranjith Kumar (TN) 4.80; 3. Geeshkumar V V (Ker) 4.70.

Discus throw: 1. Amandeep Singh (Pun) 53.30 metres; 2. Harpreet Singh (Del) 52.22; 3. Amritpal Singh (Pun) 52.16.

400 metres hurdles: 1. Shankar Patlavath (AP) 50.97 seconds; 2. Joseph Abraham (Ker) 51.81; 3. Gurpreet Singh (Pun) 52.39.

Triple jump: 1. Renjith M (Ker) 15.69 metres; 2. Bhupinder Singh (Pun) 15.62; 3. Saintson K C (Ker) 15.62.

Javelin Throw: 1. Kashinath Naik (Mah) 73.00 metres; 2. Om Narayan (Har) 72.44; Gurkirat Singh (Pun) 71.95.

200 metres: 1. Anil Kumar (Ker) 21.00 seconds; 2. Vilas Neelagund (Karna) 21.08; 3. A Arvind (TN) 21.11.

800 metres: 1. Ghamanda Ram (Raj) 1:47.99; 2. Primesh P S (Ker) 1:51.22; 3. J M Mathew (Karna) 1:52.88.

5000 metres: 1. Sunil Kumar Singh (Har) 14:40.60; Kuldip Kumar (UP) 14:42.60; 3. Sitaram (Mah) 14:43.80.

Women:

400 metres hurdles: 1. Chitra Soman (Jharkhand) 59.62 seconds; 2. Pooja Jakhar (Del) 1:00.51; 3. Vijayalaxmi (Karna) 1:00.54.

200 metres; 1. Rajwinder Kaur Gill (Pun) 23.72 seconds; 2. Saradha Narayan (TN) 24.93; 3. Ranjita Roy (WB) 25.08.

Heptathlon: 1. Sushmita Singh Roy (WB) 5287 points; 2. Rosemary Antony (Ker) 4147; 3. V Leelavathi (TN) 4123.

800 metres: 1. S Shanthi (TN) 2:07.76; 2. Sathi Geetha (AP) 2:08.06; 3. Sinimol Paulose (Jharkhand) 2:08.48.

5000 metres: 1. Jaisha O P (Ker) 17:53.97; 2. Pampa Chanda (WB) 18:03.35; 3. Preeja Sreedharan (Ker) 18:12.96.

Discus throw: 1. Neelam Singh (Har) 57.52 metres; 2. Krishna Punia (Raj) 55.96; 3. Archana Mondal (WB) 42.50.