Anju fails to fetch medal, relay team enter final

India’s medal hope in long jump, Anju Bobby George, bettered her personal best, but it wasn’t enough to fetch her a medal. Even though Anju leaped 6.83m in her first attempt, she needed to do much better to catch up with the Russians, who swept all the three medals on Friday.

THE WINNERS

1 Tayana Lebedeva (7.07)Russia
2 Irina Simagina (7.05) Russia
3 Tatyana Kotova (7.05) Russia

Marion Jones, a top contender, also disappointed, finishing fifth with a leap of 6.85m.

Anju’s jump, however, is a new national record -- 0.09m more than her previous best of 6.74m cleared at the Nationals in Delhi.

However, there was a pleasant surprise from the track. The women's relay team entered the final of the 4x400m race with a national record.

The quartet comprising Rajwinder Kaur, KM Beenamol, Chitra K Soman and anchor Manjit Kaur clocked 3 minute, 26.89 seconds surpassing the previous mark of 3:27.35 set in the Asian Grand Prix Meet in Colombo in June earlier this year.