Bambolim (Goa): Although there were no national marks improved on the concluding day of 12th National Youth Athletics Championships, the action in GMC Stadium here went on with several young athletes qualify for either Asian or World Youth Championships. The last day’s proceedings also witnessed meet records bettered in three events as the curtain rung down at the three-day national competition that served as a launching pad for many young athletes having ambitions to attain greater heights in the near future.
Delhi lad Abhishek Drall, the leading youth javelin thrower in Asia this season, improved his previous best that bettered the meet record by more than five meters. He achieved it on his second try by setting out the spear to a whooping distance of 75.26m and thus qualified for both Asian and World youth championships to be held later this year.
The second placed Mohd Hadish (Uttar Pradesh) too attained the above qualifications through his third round throw that measured to 73.47m.
Tamil Nadu’s Santhosh Kumar completes a golden double. He clocked a noteworthy 53.37 secs to snatch the gold in 400m hurdles to add it to his victory in 110m hurdles on the opening day.
Kerala’s P O Sayana bettered the meet mark in the girls’ event with a new time of 1:02.58 that erased the previous 1:03.43 held by her state-mate Geeta Roby since 2004.
Bengal’s Chandan Bauri and Kerala girl Jisna Mathew were once again on top through victories in 200m in their respective divisions. Earlier, they both had won the 400m gold.
Sonu Kumar was another athlete to garner a second gold. The winner of long jump earlier, the Rajasthani boy went past the meet record in triple jump this evening as he leapt 15.50m to remove Maharashtrian Dhiraj Mishra’s seven-year-old 15.37m from the record books.
There was an exciting contest for the top position in boys 2000m steeplechase wherein Pinchu Kumar of Uttarakhand and Naveen Malik of Haryana crossed the finish line together and timed an identical 6 minutes 9.93 seconds. After studying the photo-finish the former was declared as the winner. Another athlete from Uttarakhand, Sohan Singh, was also part of the thrilling race as he completes the podium in a very close 6:09.99.
Two athletes from Uttar Pradesh, the stable of Indian steeplechasers, Khushbu Gupta (7:44.99) and Varsha Nagar (8:18.20) finished 1-2 in the girls race.
Earlier in the morning, Delhi boy Eknath Shambhaji clinched the gold in 10,000m race walk with a time of 46:16.39, which was more than 2 minutes outside his personal best 44:03.55 he registered while winning in the youth category in last year’s Junior Nationals at Lucknow.
Kerala pushed last night’s leader Haryana to win the overall championship with 156 points.
RESULTS:
Boys: 200m: 1. Chandan Bauri (West Bengal) 21.99 secs, 2. Chirag (Haryana) 22.11s, 3. Manish (Karnataka) 22.21s;
800m: 1. Beant Singh (Haryana) 1:53.48, 2. Shah Faishal (Uttar Pradesh) 1:54.88, 3. Pawan Kumar (Uttarakhand) 1:56.41;
400m Hurdles: 1. Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 53.37 secs, 2. A Rashid (Kerala) 53.79s, 3. Muhammed Anas (Kerala) 54.10s;
2000m Steeplechase: 1. Pinchu Kumar (Uttarakhand) 6:09.93, 2. Naveen Malik (Haryana) 6:09.93, 3. Sohan Singh (Uttarakhand) 6:09.99;
Triple Jump: 1. Sonu Kumar (Rajasthan) 15.50 mtrs NMR (Old- 15.37m Dhiraj Mishra, Maharashtra, 2008), 2. Boby Sabu (Kerala) 14.58m, 3. Harpreet Singh (Punjab) 14.20m;
Javelin Throw: 1. Abhishek Drall (Delhi) 75.26 mtrs NMR (Old- 70.02m Naveen Kumar, Haryana, 2011), 2. Mohd. Hadish (Uttar Pradesh) 73.47m, 3. Rajesh Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 66.12m;
10000m Walk: 1. Eknath Shambhaji (Delhi) 46:16.39, 2. Naveen (Haryana) 47:09.81, 3. Sumit Mandhan (Haryana) 49:01.82;
Medley Relay: 1. Haryana 1:58.59, 2. Kerala 2:00.34, 3. Delhi 2:00.82; Team championship: 1. Haryana 103.5 points, 2. Uttar Pradesh 68 pts; Best Athlete: Ashish Jakhar (Haryana)
Girls: 200m: 1. Jisna Mathew (Kerala) 25.09 secs, 2. Ramalakshmi (Tamil Nadu) 26.26s, 3. Komal Sharma (Uttar Pradesh) 26.36s;
800m: 1. C Babitha (Kerala) 2:13.48, 2. Abitha Mary Manuel (Kerala) 2:15.27, 3. Tanuja Singh (Bihar) 2:29.32;
400m Hurdles: 1. P O Sayana (Kerala) 1:02.58 NMR (Old- 1:03.43 Geeta Roby, Kerala, 2004), 2. Tiasha Samaddar (West Bengal) 1:03.07, 3. Ramalakshmi (Tamil Nadu) 1:03.65;
2000m Steeplechase: 1. Khushbu Gupta (Uttar Pradesh) 7:44.99, 2. Varsha Nagar (Uttar Pradesh) 8:18.20, 3. Shardha Sainuche (Goa) 8:50.41; Triple Jump: 1. Rugma Udhayan (Kerala) 12.34 mtrs, 2. S Priyadarshini (Tamil Nadu) 12.27m, 3. S Nandhini (Tamil Nadu) 12.17m;
Discus Throw: 1. Sonal Goyal (Delhi) 39.69 mtrs, 2. Seema (Haryana) 39.53m, 3. P S Nivedita (Karnataka) 37.95m;
Heptathlon: 1. Trisha Dhar (West Bengal) 3872 points, 2. Vanshika Sejwal (Delhi) 3790 pts, 3. Athira Mohanan (Kerala) 3745 pts;
Medley Relay: 1. Kerala 2:17.96, 2. Telangana 2:21.45, 3. West Bengal 2:22.81;
Team championship: 1. Kerala 106 points, 2. Tamil Nadu 52 pts; Best Athlete: Rashmi Sheregar (Maharashtra)
