BANGALORE, Dec 23: Rosa Kutty's splendid run in the quarter-mile was the highlight of the second day's action in the Inter-State Athletics Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Tuesday. Kutty's speed and endurance was such that even Usha who is regaining her old form could not cope with.

Kutty stopped the clock at 52.14 seconds, bettering Shiny Wilson's old mark which stood at 52.2 seconds. The amazing performance, coming from the 34-year old Kutty, whose forte is the 800 metres race, raised visions of the athlete faring well at the Asiad in the longer event.

Kutty is competing in the longer sprint basically to improve her speed. Her forte had always been endurance but she had not realised her potential thus far, beaten for speed and ended up finishing second behind Shiny till last year. However, after coming under the able guidance of coach Purushotham Rai, she has done well for herself.

Kutty took off from the starting blocks brilliantly and ran aggressively right through the race. The pace that she set for so hot that Usha found herself trailing and had no hope of catching up with Kutty who finished well clear of Usha who timed at 52.37 seconds.

Kutty is older than Usha though the latter has been on the national scene for a longer period of time. It is only now that Kutty has been in the limelight. Usha, despite repeated her failures after a golden run, has refused to quit and her dedication and determination are producing results after a long frustrating wait. ``I have come under 53 seconds for the first time after seven long years. I did not stretch myself fully as I have run only a few races over 400 metres in the recent past. The quarter-mile race is basically a tactical race and I am sure I can improve after a couple of meets.'' The much talked about KM Binamol of Kerala took third spot ahead of MK Asha who was competing in the nationals in this event for the first time.

While her coach Purushotham Rai was pleased with the manner in which Asha ran in the longer sprint, Asha herself was more than happy with her performance in the 100 metres hurdles where her smooth clearance of hurdles without breaking her stride pattern, enabled the Karnataka athlete to come up with a new meet record timing of 13.95 seconds. The effort improved on team-mate BN Sumavathy's record of 14.1 seconds. Sumavathy incidentally finished second with a time of 14.20 seconds while Kerala's Nisha Venugopal took the third spot.

The spotlight in the men's section was trained on the performance of Lijo David of Kerala in the 400 metres race and Punjab's Jagadish Vasundi in the javelin throw. Lijo David accelerated tremendously at the top of the straight and Paramjit Singh, despite making a valiant effort, failed to collar the front runner. David timed 46.85 seconds.

Punjab's Jagadish Vasundi won the men's javelin, hurling the spear to a record distance of 75.98 metres, bettering the meet record of 75.22 metres. Omprakash Dudi of Rajasthan was second with an effort of 71.92 metres followed by TN's Satveer Singh (69.92 metres).

There was a tie between Tamil Nadu's Anju Marcose and Kerala's Lekha Thomas in the women's triple jump, with both clearing an identical record-breaking distance of 13.13 metres, bettering the old mark of 12.34 metres.

However, Anju Marcose was declared the winner as her second best effort was 13.02 metres as against Lekha's 12.98 metres. Reena Thomas was a faraway third.

Delhi's Ashok Kumar topped in the 110 metres high hurdles in 14.60 seconds while Gurmith Singh was the winner in the women's javelin throw, clearing a distance of 50.80 metres.

Karnataka's Arun D'Souza won the 3000 metres steeplechase in a slow timing of 9 minutes 15.66 seconds from Maharashtra's Sanjeev Nair. With the runners in the fray being totally ill-matched, the runners ran in single file, with Arun spotted as a winner long way from home.

Results: Men: 110 m hurdles: Ashok Kumar (Del) 1; C K Harish (Krn) 2; Yesudas (Krn) 3. T: 14.6 secs. 400 m: Lijo David (Ker) 1; Paramjit Singh (Pun) 2; Prabjoth Singh (Pun) 3. T: 46.85 secs. 3000 Steeple chase: Arun D'Souza (Krn) 1; Sanjeev Nair (Mah) 2; K Dharmarajan (Ker) 3. T: 9:15.66 secs. 4x100 relay: Tamil Nadu 1; Karnataka 2; Kerala 3. T: 42.45 secs.
Long jump: Bidhan Mirandi (Bih) 1; B S Vinod (Ker) 2; MB Sadashivan (Ker) 3. Dist: 7.45 m. Javelin throw: Jagadish Vasundi (Pun) 1; Omprakash Dudi (Raj) 2; Satveer Singh (TN) 3. Dist: 75.98 M (NMR) Olf: 75.22 M Satbir Singh 1992.

WOMEN: 100 m hurdles: MK Asha (Krn) 1; BN Sumavathi (Krn) 2; Misha Venugopal (Ker)3. T: 13.95 secs (NMR) Old: 14.1 sec BN Sumavathi 1995. 400 m:Rosa Kutty (Krn) 1; PT Usha (Ker) 2; KM Binamol (Ker) 3. T:52.14 secs (NMR) Old: 52.2 secs. Shiny Wilson 1995. 4x100 m: Kerala 1; Karnataka 2; Tamil Nadu 3. T:45.96 (NMR). Old: 46.5 Kerala 1984 and Karnataka 1995. Triple jump: Anju Marcose (TN) 1, Lekha Thomas (Ker) 2; Reena Thomas (Ker) 3. D: 13.13 (NMR) Old: 12.34 Ancy Philip 1995. Javelin throw: Gurumit Singh (Del) 1; Susham Beraha (Ori) 2; NM Hemalatha (Krn) 3. D: 50.80 m. Discus throw: Neelam J Singh (Pun) 1; Harjit Kaur (Pun) 2; Sugan Yadav (Har) 3. D: 53.90 m

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