Surender smashes 5000m record in Federation Cup

Kolkata, May 10 (UNI) Army's Surender Singh set the New Championship record in the Men's 5000m with a personal best timing of 13:51.64s, erasing Gulab Chand's nine-year-old record of 14:01.33s set in 1998 on the opening day of the 13th Federation Cup Athletics Championship at Salt Lake Stadium here.

It was Yunus Khan who set the early pace, but Surender soon gained momentum to lead in all laps except in the 10th lap when Kashinath Aswale of Jharkhand overtook him for a brief period.

Kashinath could not sustain the pace and in the last lap Surender regained the lead till the finish line.

Surender's performance is now the third fastest timing in 5000m for an Indian. Kashinath Aswale too finished second with excellent timing of 13:54.42s which is all time fifth best finish.

The third place went to S Raghunath of Tamil Nadu with 14:04.58s.

In the women's 5000m, favorite Preeja Sreedharan of Kerala was the runway leader as she led right from the start to finish, with no even threatening to challenge her seriously.

Preeja won in 16:07.93s, beating Kavita Raut of Maharashtra who registered an impressive timing of 16: 36.47s in the first race after recovering from injury.

The third place here went to L Preeti Rao of Jharkhand with 16:45.25s.

Francis Sagayaraj and Sinimol Paulose moved into finals of the men and women's 800m with a comfortable win in heats.

UNI