Bambolim (Goa): The second day of the 12th National Youth Athletics championships, billed as the selection trials for the Indian aspirants looking to participate in the inaugural Asian Youth championships at Doha (Qatar) next month, witnessed the first national record of the meet in boys’ hammer throw as Haryana’s Ashish Jakhar surpassed the previous mark twice on Friday morning.

Reigning youth nationals champion Pradeep Kumar of Rajasthan, who was looking to defend his title here, faultered on his first attempt which went out as a ‘no mark’ and could not found his rhythm to come back to the mainstream. Pradeep, who registered a personal best 70.03m in the junior nationals at Vijayawada could manage only 65.07m to finish third today.

However Ashish made his intentions clear by set out the 5 kg ball and chain to a new distance of 71.92m on his opening throw and went on to improve it further to 72.04m to stamp his class with fine rotations on the circle. Only a Chinese thrower, Xu Wenjie is having a better mark than the Haryana boy in his 72.35m while winning their youth nationals at Chongqing earlier this month. It was indeed a big improvement from 67.09m Ashish did in Vijayawada.

Miraj Ali from Uttar Pradesh takes the silver with 68.35m throw. Both Ashish and Miraj improved the previous meet mark of 67.63m held in the name of Pradeep Kumar set in Goa last year. The previous national record stood in the name of Haryana’s Sukhdev Singh (70.35m) since 2009.

Tamil Nadu boy Rajesh bettered his state-mate Vivekanandan’s national record in decathlon by garnered 6081 points.

National School Games champion Durga Deore was the third athlete to erase the national record today as she stopped the clock at 4:34.05 in 1500m that removed Bengal girl Jhuma Khatun’s 10-year-old mark of 4:36.40 from the books. Lili Das from West Bengal finished second in a credible 4:37.02.

Kerala quarter-milers made a clean sweep of medals in the girls 400m race with promising Jisna Mathew taking the gold in 56.50 seconds. Jisna, who clocked a season best 55.74 secs in the junior nationals, is currently ranked sixth in the Asian lists. Linet George (59.47s) and K Sneha (1:00.49) filled the other two places on the podium.

In the boys’ race Bengal’s Chandan Bauri clocked an impressive 47.78 secs to qualify for the Doha meet but missed the national and meet record of 47.65 secs held in the name of Haryana’s Sandeep narrowly. It may be noted here that when competing at the National Games in Thiruvananthapuram this February, Chandan clocked a brilliant 47.41 secs to win a bronze medal.

Haryana’s Poonam Jakhar obliterated the meet mark in javelin throw as she hurled the spear to 52.19m. With today’s performance she moved to second spot in the continental lists behind Chinese thrower Chen Jiajia (54.43m).

Bandana upsets the rest of the field to win in race walking.

The art of race walking attracts Indian youth in recent times and the fact was once again reflected in the high octane competition threw in by girls who fight it out for the top honours earlier this morning.

The cream of young girls who lined-up for 5000m race walk includes Priyanka Patel, who won the gold medal in the youth category at the Junior Nationals in Vijayawada last year, besides Bandana Patel—last year’s runner-up in the youth nationals here.

It appeared in the initial stages of the race that Priyanka will emerge as the champion. However Bandana exhibited her enthralling skills to increase the pace gradually to move ahead in the waning moments to finish first in 26 minutes 36.15 seconds. Kerala girl G Nisha also overtook Priyanka in the last 200m for the silver position in 26:41.53. Priyanka clocked 26:43.87 while Maharashtra’s Suvarna Raju timed 27:23.80 to finish third and fourth respectively as all the top four finishers returned with their personal best timings today.

It may be mentioned that Bandana clocked 27:38.39 here last year behind Kerala’s K.T. Neena who recorded an Indian best 24:11.70 for the gold.

Tamil Nadu hurdlers Santhosh Kumar and Nithya won the gold in boys and girls divisions respectively.

RESULTS:

Boys:

400m: 1. Chandan Bauri (West Bengal) 47.78 secs, 2. Baljeet (Haryana) 50.56s, 3. Nikhil (Delhi) 50.77s;

1500m: 1. Ambuj Tiwari (Uttar Pradesh) 4:06.74, 2. Yogesh Gurunath (Maharashtra) 4:06.99, 3. Sahil Thakran (Haryana) 4:07.37; 110m Hurdles: 1. Santhosh Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 14.07 secs, 2. Debarjun Murmu (West Bengal) 14.30s, 3. Pratik Pandey (Uttar Pradesh) 14.64s;

Pole Vault: 1. Dhirendra Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 4.30 mtrs, 2. Gowtham (Tamil Nadu) 4.00m, 3. Dharmendra Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 4.00m; Long Jump: 1. Sonu Kumar (Rajasthan) 7.12 mtrs, 2. M Sreeshankar (Kerala) 6.98m, 3. Harpreet Singh (Punjab) 6.87m; Hammer Throw: 1. Ashish Kumar (Haryana) 72.04m New National Record (Old- 70.35m Sukhdev Singh, Haryana, 2009), 2. Miraj Ali (Uttar Pradesh) 68.35m, 3. Pradeep Kumar (Rajasthan) 65.07m;
Decathlon: 1. Rajesh (Tamil Nadu) 6081 points, New National Record (Old- 5898 pts N. Vivekanandan, TN, 2014), 2. Amit Singh (Delhi) 5950 pts, 3. Amit (Haryana) 5907 pts;

Girls:

400m: 1. Jisna Mathew (Kerala) 56.50 secs, 2. Linet George (Kerala) 59.47s, 3. K Sneha (Kerala) 60.49s;

1500m: 1. Durga Pramod Deore (Maharashtra) 4:34.05 New National Record (Old- 4:36.40 Jhuma Khatun, Bengal, 2005), 2. Lili Das (West Bengal) 4:37.02, 3. P M Anjana (Kerala) 5:23.10;

100m Hurdles: 1. Nithya (Tamil Nadu) 14.87 secs, 2. Sushma Ram (Karnataka) 15.16s, 3. Sapna Kumari (Jharkhand) 15.40s; High Jump: 1. Laimwn Narzary (Assam) 1.70 mtrs NMR (Old- 1.68m Arti Yadav, Haryana, 2006), 2. Anju Babu (Kerala) 1.61m, 3. Athira Somaraj (Kerala) 1.58m; Hammer Throw: 1. Poonam Jakhar (Haryana) 52.19 mtrs NMR (Old- 46.30m Rekha, Madhya Pradesh, 2014), 2. Shital (Haryana) 46.02m, 3. Radhana Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 43.72m;
5000m Walk: 1. Bandana Patel (AFI) 26:36.15, 2. G Nisha (Kerala) 26:41.53, 3. Priyanka Patel (AFI) 26:43.87;