Karim Nagar (Telangana): The 28th South Zone Junior Athletics championships, which commenced at Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Stadium here on Tuesday morning, witnessed two meet marks being bettered in field events—both by youth (U18) girls.
Young Kerala pole vaulter Nivya Antony, who just 10 days ago scaled 3.45m during the SAF junior Trials at Patiala, set the first record of the day by vaulting to 3.40m. Teammate Arsha Babu (3.00) and Tamil Nadu’s Pushpa Rani (2.80) were the other medalists in that event.
In the same age-category Tamil Nadu star N Hemamalini sents the 500 grams spear to a new distance of 43.10m in the after-noon. It was a whooping 10 metres ahead of Karnataka’s Parvathi M Naik (33.37) and Andhra girl A Gayathri (33.16) who filled the other places on the podium.
The previous meet records in these events were held by Kerala girls Maria Jaison (3.20m) and Gopika Narayanan (39.67m).
Defending champions Team Kerala tops the table with 298 points at the end of first day ahead of arch rivals Tamil Nadu (279).
