Beenamol makes up for the men's poor show

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Sydney: Coming onto the ground at a time, when questions were being raised about whether the Indian athletics team should have been sent at all, or at least, such a huge contingent, K M Beenamol, salvaged some prestige for the athletics federation with a sterling performance in the women's 400m first round.

It was only the first round but the ease with which she coasted to a win and her time of 51.51 seconds, indicated enough about her potential. The slender Indian girl, who turned 25 on August 15, finished almost half a second ahead of the second placed Russian, Olga Kotlyarova, who clocked 51.99 seconds.

Adding to the sub-continental touch was the third place finish from the more famous Damayanthi Dharsha of Sri Lanka, who came in third in her heat earlier. Dharsha clocked 52.13 seconds to come in behind Nigerian Charity Opara, who clocked 51.77 seconds.

Natalya Nazarova of Russia was second at 52.05 seconds. Interestingly, Beenamol like Paramjit Singh in the morning got the eighth lane often called the "Blind Man's Lane."

With no one to catch up, Beenamol simply flew away and kept going much to the surprise of the crowd, which cheered the small built Indian. The much taller, Olga Kotlyarova, who stands seven inches taller than Beenamol looked quite a sight as she finished behind the Indian.

The Russian is a former European championships bronze medallist and a member of the Russian team that won the gold in the 4 x 400m relay at the last World Indoor Championships.

Beenamol is now into the second round. Though she may find it tough to get into the final, a semi-final berth is certainly not out of her reach. It also augurs well for the Indian 4 x 400m women's relay team, which incidentally is the only other event, apart from P T Usha's 400m hurdles in 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, in which India has made it to an Olympic final.

Former Asian junior champion, Beenamol's performance came as a soothing balm for the Indian athletics squad still smarting under the awful performance of the morning session.

India Abroad News Service