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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040913/a ... 751211.asp

Surekha sets national mark

Mumbai: V. S. Surekha of Indian Railways set a new national mark bettering her own record with a jump of 3.55 m in the women’s pole vault at the national open athletics meet on Sunday.

Surekha had set her earlier record in Bangalore last year.

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=298703

PTI
SPORT ATH
NEW DELHI, MAY 17 (PTI)
V S Surekha of Railways set a new national record with her gold medal winning effort in the women's pole vault scaling 3.70 metre at the season opening National Athletics Meet here today.

Surekha bettered her own record of 3.55m which was set up in Mumbai in September last year.

Chetna Solanki of UP was the second best with 3.60m, which was also above the previous national record, and Assam's Geetanjali Bora was third with 3.40m at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=298759

Surekha erases her own national mark in National Circuit Meet
NEW DELHI, MAY 17 (PTI)
Railways V S Surekha rewrote the records book setting a new mark in women's pole vault while S Geetha won the much-awaited women's 400m race in the first National Circuit Meet here today.

Surekha, the 21-year-old Commercial Clerk with Southern Railways, soared to a height of 3.70 metres improving her own national mark of 3.55 set last September in the Open Nationals in Mumbai.

Uttar Pradesh's Chetna Solanki also bettered the existing national mark clearing 3.60m but had to content with the second place with Surekha proving too good. Assam's Geetanjali Vora produced her best performance till date clinching the third place with 3.40m.

Surekha's performance was the only bright spot in the day-night meet's proceedings as the rest of the country's premier athletes used the meet to test their preparation levels at the beginning of the season.


In the women's pole vault pit, once Vora pulled out after reaching a height of 3.40m, it was a contest between Chetna and Surekha. The bar was raised to 3.60m and both the girls failed in their first attempts.

Surekha cleared the height in her second attempt setting a new mark but the UP lass, who upset Surekha in the Salwan Meet last week, soon matched the Railways girl's effort in her third try.

Yo, Rainbow:

If I sort through all the inaccuracies in those news reports from India, I think that Surekha improved the IND national record, although not bettering her own record, but that of Solanki.

As I have it, the record progressed in the sequence:

3.55m Vazhipali Shresh Surekha 2004-09-12 Mumbai
3.60m Chetna Solanki 2005-03-11 New Delhi
3.70m Surekha 2005-05-17 New Delhi

Also a few record ties, enroute, there.

Cheers

http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=29403.html

Vazhipali Suresh Surekha (India) leaps to national record in New Delhi (Rahul Pawar)

Surekha asserts her supremacy – Indian GP series
Wednesday 18 May 2005
New Delhi, India - Vazhipali Suresh Surekha avenged her defeat to Chetna Solanki of hardly a week ago as she sailed over a new national record height of 3.70m to win the women's Pole Vault yesterday evening in the first leg of Vinex-Indian GP Circuit Athletic Meet at New Delhi.

The duo’s duel was at the centre of attention in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium yesterday. At their previous encounter during the inaugural ATE-Salwan National Throws and Pole Vault meeting at Salwan Public School grounds on 10 May both athletes had vaulted 3.50m, with Chetna getting the better of Surekha on count-back. But yesterday fortunes were reversed as Surekha, to the support of a cheering crowd sailed over the national record height.



Vazhipali Suresh Surekha (India)
(Rahul Pawar)


“Today is good with a covered stadium in our advantage,â€Â

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanheral ... 200561.asp

Chetna on cloud nine with pole vault record
By Rajeev K DH News Service, New Delhi:
The 21-year-old UP girl stole the show with a record in pole vault, eclipsing the previous mark of 3.70M set two weeks back by Tamil Nadu’s V S Surekha.

For a few moments after she soared past the bar and came crashing down to the pit, Chetna Solanki had her heart in her mouth. She had hit the bar on the way down, causing it to shake violently. With a silent prayer on her lips, she looked on for moments that must have seemed like ages, but as the bar stayed put, it was time for the frail-looking girl to stand up and celebrate. At the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, another national record in pole vault had gone up in smoke.

At the same venue two weeks back, Tamil Nadu’s V S Surekha had raised the bar to 3.70 metres, improving her own mark by 15 centimetres. Chetna, battling bravely, had finished second then, despite a personal best of 3.60M. On Wednesday, the roles were reversed as Chetna grabbed the spotlight on the first day of the Federation Cup with her record-breaking leap.

The 21-year-old from Gandhinagar, representing Uttar Pradesh here, scraped past the bar at 3.80 metres on her second attempt after a pitched battle with Surekkha, who herself improved her best to 3.75 metres. But when it came to the crunch, a weary Surekha failed to get going while Chetna found the luck she needed.


“I have been after this record for the last two years, and finally, luck was on my side today,â€Â

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=301928

Chetna upstages Surekha to claim National record in pole vault
NEW DELHI, JUN 1 (PTI)
After an exciting battle for supremacy Uttar Pradesh's Chetna Solanki set a new national record in women's pole vault on the opening day of the ONGC Federation Cup Athletics Championships here today.

Solanki cleared 3.80m in her second attempt at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to erase Tamil Nadu's V S Surekha's earlier mark of 3.70m set at the same venue a fortnight ago.

The two athletes, who are both trained by P C Tyagi, were way ahead of the rest of the competition and above 3.50m (the height cleared by third placed Geetanjali Bora) there was none to challenge them.

When the bar was raised to 3.70m Surekha easily cleared it in her first attempt while the UP girl needed a second chance. After both vaulted over 3.75m on their third attempt, the record height of 3.80m was cleared by Solanki in her second attempt but Surekha failed in all her three tries. She nearly made it in her second and third attempts only to land in despair as the bar came off after a wobble.

"I was trying for this record for the last two years and I am so happy to have made it today," the 21-year-old Solanki said giving all the credit to her coach.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/16/stories ... 661900.htm

Sureka sets National record

K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI: Amidst a clutch of mediocre performances, V.S. Sureka's national record in pole vault and Ghamanda Ram's 1:47 in the 800 metres stood out as creditable exceptions as the Indian athletics season got off to a limping start through the first National circuit meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

For a senior national-level meet, the performances proved an apology overall. Thin fields in a majority of the events and timings comparable to school standards proved to be the order of the day and if Sureka and Ghamanda Ram raised their levels a notch above par it was surely with an eye on Commonwealth Games selection.

Sureka raised the bar in women's pole vault to 3.90 metres, bettering the mark of 3.80m she held jointly with Chetna Solanki since last year.

`Not happy'


"I am not happy with my performance, but a national record is a national record. I was aiming for four metres in this meet," said Sureka, the Southern Railway commercial clerk from Chennai. She will need a mark of around 4.10 metres in coming weeks if she has to gain selection for the Melbourne Games.

Sureka did go for 4.00 metres and had two narrows misses in her three failures. She had caught up with Chetna Solanki at 3.80 at last year's Asian championships. Sureka pointed out her plight of having to compete with just one personal pole. "I can't afford to buy a new one, costing around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000," she said.

http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?acti ... s&id=10787

Surekha needs proper equipment to soar higher

New Delhi, Feb 15 : Financial constraints are preventing the national pole vault record holder V S Surekha from scaling new heights.

The Tamil Nadu athlete, who bettered the mark of 3.80m set by herself and Uttar Pradesh's Chetna Solanki by 10 cm at the Circuit Meet here today, is hamstrung by problems in acquiring quality poles, the vital ingredient for success in her event.

"I have changed three poles in the last two months as they were not good enough," Surekha told PTI today.

"These poles are specially made for the event and have to be imported as they are not made in India," she said, adding "they cost Rs 23,000 each and thus hurt the pocket." The 21-year-old said that she needed finances to acquire the equipment and was looking forward to some cash awards from the Athletics Federation of India as recognition for her feat.

She would get Rs 10,000 for finishing first in her event at today's meet. "The Federation had also decided to give Rs 25,000 as cash incentive to any athlete breaking a national record," a top AFI official said.

http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/24/stor ... 302100.htm

Sureka betters national record

K.P. Mohan



The meet sees poor participation
Krishna Poonia's records personal best of 60.31 in women's discus

PATIALA: V.S. Sureka bettered her national pole vault record yet again on Monday. But as on the last occasion, she will have to wait and see whether the new mark of 4.08 metres will go into the record books.

Barring Sureka's feat, and to a lesser extent Krishna Poonia's personal best of 60.31 in women's discus, the third National circuit meet here failed to produce a result that could have made one sit up and notice or the coaches to shed their glum looks. With a team from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), waiting on the sidelines to collect urine samples as part of its out-of-competition testing, the mood was anything but upbeat.

The majority of the sprinters having not reported back at the camp after the Open National in Delhi, the 200 metres in both sections were cancelled. Just three ran in the men's 100 metres including a local youngster; just four competed in the women's 100 metres including a local athlete.

The ostensible reason that the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) made out for this meet was the need to provide an additional chance for the athletes to `peak'. Obviously, the athletes have their own ideas and they are perhaps also fully familiar with the raids by WADA and the enquiry committees that the federation sets up to look into such misdemeanours as skipping camps.

Two-horse race


Amidst the gloominess all around, Sureka pushed herself beyond her best, while being challenged by a lone athlete, Madhusini Devi. "I was confident of 4.15 today," said the Chennai-based Railway employee. "And I was hoping to aim for 4.20 in the inter-State meet," the 22-year-old Kerala girl added. She failed at 4.15.

She scaled 4.10, the Asian Games qualifying mark if one were to take the third-place criterion, on her first attempt but on being re-measured (for record purposes), it was found to be 4.08 metres only. Yet it was a record all right, bettering her own mark of 4.05 metres set in the inter-Railway meet in Delhi last month. That record as well as this one will come up for scrutiny later and a question would be put about the mandatory dope-testing.

Poonia re-asserted her supremacy in discus while the better-rated Seema Antil (58.52) and Harwant Kaur (55.28) continued to struggle. Seema was in tears in the end, not able to explain why she had hit such a lean patch.

For the rest, there was disappointment in that the women's quarter-milers could not get out of the 53-plus bracket, with Manjeet redeeming her reputation somewhat by winning, while the men failed to crack 47 seconds.

Shot putter Navpreet threw 18.72 metres, a far cry from his season best of 19.84m while Renjith Maheshwary showed his consistency in triple jump with a 16.25m effort. A disappointment once again was Amarjeet Singh who managed just 15.78m.

The results: Men: 100m: 1. Vilas Neelgund 10.67, 2. Ajay Kumar 10.84, 3. Maninder Singh 11.34; 400m: 1. Bhupinder Singh 47.49, 2. Joseph Abraham 47.54, 3. Sreejith P. S. 48.05; Pole vault: 1. Gajanan Upadhyaya 4.70, 2. Geesh Kumar 4.70, 3. P. J. Vinod 4.35; Triple jump: 1. Renjith Maheshwary 16.25, 2. Amarjeet Singh 15.78, 3. Sukhjinder Singh 15.51; Shot put: 1. Navpreet Singh 18.72, 2. Amarjeet Singh 17.17, 3. Kulwinder Singh 16.57; Javelin: 1. Gajender Kumar 70.70, 2. Sunil Goswami 70.55, 3. Jagdish Bishnoi 69.42.

Women: 100m: 1. H. M. Jyothi 12.08, 2. V. D. Shijila 12.40, 3. Mandeep Kaur 12.47; 400m: 1. Manjeet Kaur 53.55, 2. Chitra K. Soman 54.79, 3. Satti Geetha 55.48; Pole vault: 1. V.S. Sureka 4.08 (NR, previous 4.05), 2. Madhusini Devi 3.45 (only two competed); Discus: 1. Krishna Poonia 60.31, 2. Seema Antil 58.52, 3. Harwant Kaur 55.28; Hammer: 1. Hardeep Kaur 61.25 (only one competitor).