Bangalore: Although there is no major youth championships at Asian or global level this year, the first day’s competition at Sree Kanteerava Stadium was highly intensive in both on track and field.
Orissa sprinter Dutee Chand continued her state’s tradition by taking the 100m title for girls with a time of 11.85 secs. Earlier in the heats she posted a new national record of 11.80 secs this morning that erased the previous national and meet mark of 12.08s held by her state-mate Ranjita Mahanta in 2010. Interestingly Ranjita’s mark also created in the heats two years ago in Coimbatore.
Bengal girls Himashree Roy (12.13) and Ruma Sarkar (12.15) claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.
In the boys division Tamil Nadu’s Augustine Yesudas clocked an impressive 10.79 secs for the gold but barely missed the national record by one-hundredth of a second. The national record (10.78s) is standing in the name of Krishnakumar Rane since 2005. Jeris Jose (10.90s) of Kerala and Husan Deep Singh (10.92s) of Punjab finished second and third in the boys’ race.
On the field, Nayana James delivered a grand display in long jump. The Kerala girl opened the fray with a giant leap of 5.94m that was enough for the top spot. She lost her rhythm thereafter and produced only another notable 5.60m on her fifth try between the fouls. However her best mark of the day (5.94m) eclipsed the meet mark of 5.87m held by local girl G.M. Aishwarya since 2010. Nayana’s teammate Jenimol Joy went home with a silver in 5.76m while Praneeta Pradeep from host state took the bronze 2 cm behind.
Rain played spoilsport when the boys’ long jump event was in progress during the evening and that marred another record performance as the competition was highly intense in the said event.
Athletes from across the country, including those from far away states like Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur and Mizoram, are taking part in the three day meet.
By Indian Sports News Network
