Priya Mohan beats Dutee for double
BENGALURU: Mangalore University, powered by students from Alva's College, Moodbidri, swept all the team titles on offer to win the overall championship in athletics at the Khelo India University Games at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Monday.
Mangalore tallied 109 points followed by Lovely Professional University (94) and Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU) (67). Mangalore (61) and Lovely (55) finished 1-2 in the men's section followed by MDU (34). Calicut (44) finished second behind Mangalore (48) in the women's section which saw Lovely end third with 39 points.
Mangalore asserted their supremacy claiming the men's 4x400m relay gold with a new record time of 3 minutes, 13. 44 seconds. The quartet was mostly in control of the race and easily beat the challenge from MG and Chaudhary Charan Singh University. The women's 1600m race saw Punjabi University take the gold as Calicut fell behind after a laboured baton exchange following the first lap. MG bagged the bronze.
Rising star Priya H Mohan pipped seasoned campaigner Dutee Chand in women's 200m final to make it a golden double. The Jain University student won in 23. 90 seconds ahead of Dutee who was content to finish second in 24. 02s. Florence Barla of Ranchi came third in 24. 13. Despite the victory Priya was well off Dutee's meet record of 23. 66.
"There was no pressure on me though I was racing against Dutee. My body had not recovered as I only had four hours of sleep. I caught he r around the 100m mark. My strategy was to catch her in the first 80m and go for a strong finish and it came out well," Priya said.
Meanwhile, Dutee, who had won the 100m gold, said 200m was not her focus now. "For the last two years, my focus has been on 100m. This is my last KIUG, so that's why I wanted to compete in both the events but now I'm unable to do well in both. I was in the race till 150 but lost out in the last 50m," she said.
