Bambolim, Goa: Maharashtra’s Kisan Naresh Tadwi, best bet for the country to win a gold medal in the inaugural Asian Youth championships at Doha (Qatar) next month, opened the account in style as he improved upon his personal best and meet mark here by clocking an impressive 8:23.76 to win the boys’ 3000m race on Thursday morning. His time bettered the meet mark of 8:26.55 held by UP athlete Inderjeet Patel since 2011. Mohan Saini (Uttarakhand, 8:35.25) and Gurpreet (Haryana, 8:37.71) took the other medals in this event.

Earlier in the first event of the 12th National Youth Athletics championships, Kerala girl Aleesha P.R. went on to win the 3000m race in girls’ section by setting a new meet record time of 10:08.45. However it was nearly 8 seconds outside her personal best 10:00.99 clocked during her state championship at Kochi last year. It was 1-2 for Kerala as Anumol Thambi snatched the silver in 10:14.25, which was however slower than her personal best 9:58.95 clocked during the Kerala School Games at Thiruvananthapuram in last December. Maharashtrian Sayali Satish Menge took the bronze in 10:33.59.

Both Kisan and Aleesha attained the qualifying mark fixed by the Athletics Federation of India for the ensuing Asian youth championships. However, only the Maharashtra runner Kisan Tadwi, trained under Vijendra Singh, accomplished the World Youth qualification as Aleesha’s time was about 18 seconds off the IAAF standard for the July meet. Hope the Kerala girl will be attempting to achieve it during the Asians.

Haryana’s Ashish Bhalothia was the third athlete to reserve a berth for the Asian youth championships as he tossed the 5 kg iron ball to 18.66 metres to win the boys’ shot put event. That put him in the top of the season rankings in Asia, ahead of China’s Zhang Xinyuan, who recorded 18.52m in Chongqing just a week ago. Punjab’s Jashandeep Singh (17.47m) and UP boy Vivek Verma (17.43m) go the other medals in this event.

In 100m, the marquee event of the day, Haryana’s Nuzrat (10.87 secs) and Maharashtrian Rashmi Prakash Sheregar (12.12s) became the fastest boy and girl of the meet respectively. Incidentally Rashmi returned with a better timing of 11.70 secs to post a new National Games record in the qualifying rounds at Thiruvananthapuram earlier this year, before taking the bronze medal in 11.87s there.

Karnataka’s Manish (10.96s) and Haryana’s Chirag (10.98s) in boys section, Srija of Tamil Nadu (12.50s) and Rosaline Ruben of Maharashtra (12.65s) in girls’ division were the other athletes to fill the podium in this event.

There was a keen contest in the girls’ long jump as Tamil Nadu’s S Priyadarshini and Bengal girl Soma Karmakar locked in to a battle for the top honours. It was Soma who led the contest right from the beginning.
However the TN girl snatched delivered a “golden leap” on her final attempt to push the Bengali jumper to second spot by just 1 cm (5.63m to 5.62m).

Haryana’s Ashwani Lamba clinched the gold in boys’ discus throw by hurling the 1.5 kg disc to 56.49m. It was an event wherein the Indians used to dominate on the Asian scene ever-since the introduction of Asian Youth Games at Singapore, five years ago. Only a Chinese thrower Wang Yuan is ranked above him in the current rankings with 57.18m in Asia.

U.P. girl Anamika Das improved her personal best to a big 14.20m to win the shot put.

In boys high jump, national school games champion Tejaswin Shankar (Delhi) tied with Kerala’s Manu Francis for the podium position. At the end Tejaswin had won the event in a tie-breaker. Both the jumpers missed the qualifying standard of 2.06m. Incidentally Tejaswin won the school nationals at Ranchi clearing 2.07m and Manu did 2.04m in the South Zone junior championships at Hyderabad, last year.

RESULTS:

Boys:

100m: 1. Nuzrat (Haryana) 10.87 secs, 2. Manish (Karnataka) 10.96s, 3. Chirag (Haryana) 10.98s; 3000m: 1. Kisan Naresh Tadwi (Maharashtra) 8:23.76 NMR (Old Record – 8:26.55 Inderjeet Patel, UP, 2011), 2. Mohan Saini (Uttarakhand) 8:35.25, 3. Gurpreet (Haryana) 8:37.71; High Jump: 1. Tejaswin Shankar (Delhi) 2.02 mtrs, 2. Manu Francis (Kerala) 2.02m, 3. Geo Jos (Kerala) 2.00m; Shot Put: 1. Ashish Bhalothia (Haryana) 18.66 mtrs, 2. Jashandeep Singh (Punjab) 17.47m, 3. Vivek Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 17.43m; Discus Throw: 1. Ashwani Lamba (Uttar Pradesh) 56.49 mtrs, 2. Sonu Atri (Delhi) 50.68m, 3. Yashwant (Bihar) 50.53m;

Girls:

100m: 1. Rashmi Prakash Sheregar (Maharashtra) 12.12 secs, 2. Srija (Tamil Nadu) 12.50s, 3. Rosaline Ruben (Maharashtra) 12.65s; 3000m: 1. P R Aleesha (Kerala) 10:08.45 NMR (Old Record – 10:09.15 Monika Athare, Maharashtra, 2009), 2. Anumol Thambi (Kerala) 10:14.24, 3. Sayali Satish Menge (Maharashtra) 10:33.59; Long Jump: 1. S Priyadarshini (Tamil Nadu) 5.63 mtrs, 2. Soma Karmakar (West Bengal) 5.62m, 3. Rugma Udhayan (Kerala) 5.55m; Shot Put: 1. Anamika Das (Uttar Pradesh) 14.20 mtrs, 2. Sonal Goyal (Delhi) 13.54m, 3. P S Nivedita (Karnataka) 13.13m; Javelin Throw: 1. Runjun Pegu (Assam) 39.37 mtrs, 2. Carmela Barla (Odisha) 35.53m, 3. Vanshika (Uttar Pradesh) 33.52m;