Coimbatore: It was celebration time again for Champions Kerala as they overcame initial setback to win comfortably the overall title for the twenty-second time in 32nd National Junior Athletics Championship, which concluded at Nehru Stadium here on Monday evening.
Before the commencement of the afternoon session today hosts Tamil Nadu was just 4 points behind Kerala that gave some anxious moment to the champion state. However their athletes made up with couple of wins, especially in junior men’s triple jump by Sanal Scaria and U16 boys 800m by Abhishek Mathew.
As many as 24 records, including 14 national records, being bettered in the five day meet. Nine athletes completes golden double on the final day, taking it to eleven in total as U14 girl Coleshiya (Tamil Nadu) and U16 thrower Paramjot Kaur (Punjab) made it earlier.
Those who secured the double today are—
Gavit Murli Kumar (Gujarat) 5000/10000m – Boys U20
B Nithin (Tamil Nadu) 100/200m – Boys U18
Shankar (Haryana) 800/1500m – Boys U18
Tejaswin Shankar (Delhi) High Jump/Triple Jump – Boys U18
Badal Shokeen (Delhi) 100/200m – Boys U16
V Revathi (Tamil Nadu) 100/200m – Girls U20
Lili Das (West Bengal) 800/1500m – Girls U20
Vanshika Sejwal (Delhi) High Jump/Heptathlon – Girls U18
R Giridharani (Tamil Nadu) 200/400m – Girls U16
In a rare combination Delhi boy Tejaswin Shankar, who on the first day bettered the senior national record with an amazing 2.26m, added his second gold by taking the top spot in triple jump for boys under-18 category today while leaping to 15.23m.
In yet another rare phenomenon, shot putters take ‘Best Athletes’ award in all four age categories among boys. The following are the best athletes of the meet as per IAAF scoring tables—
BOYS:
U20 –Naveen (Haryana) Shot Put 19.02m (1062 points)
U18 – Dipender Dabas (Haryana) Shot Put 20.63m (1159 points)
U16 – Satyawan (Haryana) Shot Put 17.83m (992 points)
U14 – Dhanveer Singh (Punjab) Shot Put 17.88m (995 points)
GIRLS:
U20 – M Loganayaki (Tamil Nadu) 400m Hurdles 1:00.14 (1008 points)
U18 – G Nithya (Telangana) 100m 12.14 secs (964 points)
U16 – Aparna Roy (Kerala) 100m Hurdles 14.47 secs (959 points)
U14 – D Bhagyalaxmi (Telangana) 600m 1:36.57 (911 points)
Two meet records being bettered on the final day. Haryana’s Shankar, who on the first day clinched the 1500m gold, claimed his second with a thrilling win over his teammate and Asian Youth champion Beant Singh. Shankar timed 1:52.59 for the meet record while Beant bettered the previous mark clocking 1:52.95 for the silver.
Also in the youth boys category Delhi lad Raj Kumar improved the other meet mark in 2,000m steeplechase posting a new time of 6:02.69.
The U20 relay quartets from hosts Tamil Nadu take thrilling wins in 4x400m relay for boys (3:14.64) and girls (3:50.60), the concluding events of the meet.
Overall Championship:
Winners: Kerala 429 points
Runners-up: Tamil Nadu 413.5 points
Boys Team Championship: Haryana 273 points
Girls Tram Championship: Kerala 268 points
