Vijayawada: Race walker Priyanka creates history by eclipsing the national mark in junior women’s 10,000m walk with a new time of 49:16.51 on the second day
of 30th National Junior Athletics championships here this morning.
Trained under Brij Kishore Vajpayee, Priyanka had been in second place behind Kerala’s K.T. Neena in the National Race Walking championships at Kochi in early February and Junior Federation Cup at Chennai in mid-summer. The absence of Neena in Vijayawada has prompted the girl from Meerut to cash in the opportunity to emerge victorious in the Junior Nationals, that too with a new mark as record performances in the Andhra city promises cash rewards to the athletes concerned.
Priyanka already proved her mettle with an amazing 48:30.35 clocking for the above distance during the North Zone junior athletics championship at PAC Stadium in Lucknow last month. However her performance in Lucknow shall not be considered for record purposes in the absence of doping control procedures.
At Vijayawada, Rajasthan’s Bhawna Jat (55:24.39) and Kerala walker Mary Margaret (56:48.06) finished a distant second and third respectively. It could have been a memorable contest had Neena too taken part here.
Earlier Haryana lads Manish (45:36.0) and Sunil (45:38.2) triumphed with first two places in the youth boys’ 10,000m walk. The junior men’s 5,000m run also witnessed Haryana’s Sharwan Kharb taking the gold at ease in 14:48.56. Sharwan was a bronze medalist in that event in Asian junior championships at Taipei this year. Ashish Kumar clinched the gold in boys under-16 hammer throw event with a meet record 67.09m while narrowly missing the national mark with 1 cm.
Haryana girl Pushpa Jakhar, who just missed a podium finish in last year’s Asian Youth Games at Nanjing (China) but won a bronze medal in the inaugural Asian Schools Track and Field Championships at Kuantan (Malaysia), led another 1-2 for her state in the youth girls’ javelin throw. Pushpa hurled the spear to 47.03m to gold while her teammate Priyanka settled with silver in 42.27m. Kerala’s J. Rajna got the bronze with a throw of 41.06m.
Kerala athletes triumphed in three out of six high hurdles races contested today. Both Maymon Poulose and M.N. Nasimudheen successfully defended their titles in the youth boys and junior men divisions respectively.
Maymon, placed fourth in the Youth Olympic Games at Nanjing this year, improved the meet mark with 13.99 secs. In a similar fashion, Dibi Sebastian also defends her title from Bangalore in the youth girls 100m hurdles.
Tamil Nadu’s Dhanalakshmi Bhaskaran pips Kerala’s Elizabeth Antony 14.93 to 14.99 secs to win the junior women’s crown while Asian Schools gold medalist T.S. Arya could manage only a bronze medal in 15.31 secs. TN girls were 1-2 in under-16 category as S. Priyadarshini defends her first position from Bangalore in 15.04 secs ahead of teammate Nandhini (15.42) and Maharashtrian Manasi Parvatkar (15.45s). Maharashtra however had a reason to cheer as Alden Anil Naronha took the boys’ u-16 gold in 13.77 secs way ahead of Telangana’s Md Tarif Hussain (14.01s).
After the winning the gold in 100m hurdles, Priyadarshini went to win her second gold medal by replicating her performance from last year’s edition in Bangalore in the long jump (5.63m). Haryana’s Renu (5.56m) and Bengal girl Soma Karmakar (5.41m) took the minor medals in that event.
Other successful title defenders of the day include Meghana Devanga of Maharashtra in youth girls shot put (14.48m) and Kumari Sharmila in junior
women’s javelin throw (48.01m).
In the youth girls’ high jump Libia Shaji won the gold by sailing over 1.66m while state-mate T.C. Cheshma was just 2 cm lower for the silver.
It was Kerala’s 15th high jump gold medal in the u-18 category in the championship’s 30-year-old history which includes great names like P.S. Bindu and Bobby Aloysius in its roll of honour.
At the end of day-2 Haryana continue to lead the table with 119 points followed by Kerala (110), Tamil Nadu (94) and Uttar Pradesh (82).
