Anju breaks Nat. record, finishes 6th

Indian ace Anju Bobby George bettered the national record in the women's long jump, but the effort was not enough to earn her a medal at the Olympics in Athens on Friday.

The 27 year-old World Athletics Championships bronze medallist, who qualified for the Olympic long jump final with a jump of 6.69 metres in the elimination on Wednesday, soared to 6.83 metres on her very first attempt in the final. That was 9cm over her personal best of 6.74m set in Thiruvananthapuram in 2001 and equalled in New Delhi in 2002, and 13cm over her World Championship best.

But she failed to improve upon it in her subsequent attempts and had to be content with a very creditable sixth place finish in a field of 12.

The effort equalled her wind assisted performance in Oregon, USA, on June 19.

Russian Tatyana Lebedeva won the gold with a leap of 7.07m in her second attempt, after fouling her first jump.

The Russians made a clean sweep of the medals, with Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova winning the silver and bronze with an effort of 7.05m each. Both Simagina and Kotova achieved the distance on their first attempt, but Simagina got the silver on account of having a slower following wind of 0.8m/s.