Top athletes fail to turn up for India Grand Prix

Patiala, May 2 (UNI) In the absence of some of the country's ace men and women athletes for unknown reasons, the inaugural India Grand Prix athletics meet failed to sparkle at the flood -lit synthetic track at NIS here today But for Mandeep Kaur (400m), who was outstanding in the meet, other athletes performed below their best.

The meet was poorly organised with absolutely no coordination among the officials.

Talking to UNI, national junior athletics chief coach Suresh Babu said the meet was not so significant since ''the athletes are just back from South Africa and are yet to get into the top gear.'' In fact, their focus was on the Federation Cup slated for May 10-13 in Kolkata.

The Results: 100m (men): Sameer Mon (10.78 s), Ajay Kumar (10.82), Lakhvir Singh (11.25) 400m (men): Joseph Abraham (47.20s), Vinay Choudhary (47.55), Virender Kumar Pankaj (47.62) 400m (women): Mandeep Kaur (55.34s), Manjeet Kaur (53.65), Chitra Soman (54.07) Javelin Throw (men): Om Narain (70.04m), Bikramjeet Singh (66.62m), Avtar Singh (66.53m) Discus Throw (women): Krishna Poonia (58.80m), Seema Antil (57.67m), Harwant Kaur (55.55m) Shot Put (men): Karanjeet Singh (16.20m), Om Prakash (16.11m), Gurpreet Singh (16.02m) Long Jump (men): Shamsher Partap Singh (7.54m), Bhartender Singh (7.54m), Rajesh R (7.49m).

UNI