Bangalore: Kerala state retained the overall championship title, its nineteenth in twenty-nine year history of the junior nationals, notwithstanding none of their team-members received the best athlete award in the five-day meet which concluded in Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on the Saturday evening.

However Jessy Joseph from the champion state improved her own national youth record in 800m with a time of 2:08.65, that was 2/100th of a second faster than her previous mark which she set during the Inter-Zonal championships at Kochi earlier this year. Jessy’s personal best – 2:06.82
– from the Open Nationals at Ranchi remain intact as there was no one to push her in today’s race. Teammate Therese Joseph (2:11.45) and UP girl Sugandha (2:18.00) were distant second and their places respectively.
 

The second national record of the day came from Bengal boy Chandan Bauri in the under-16 division. He clocked an impressive 22.11 secs which was faster than the winning time of junior men’s race in the morning session.
The absence of TN sprinter Augustine Yesudas and Chandigarh’s 100m victor Husandeep Singh made the senior race a lacklustre affair which hosts Karnataka’s Saleem Sheikh eventually win in 22.27 secs. Haryana boy Mohit took the youth boys title in 21.78 secs. TN sprinter Archana Suseeendran made it a double as she takes the 200m dash in 24.61s today.

Bengal girl Swapna Burman, who earlier set a national mark in high jump, garnered 4992 points in heptathlon today to improve the meet mark in that event.

However the most impressive performance of the day came from Tamil Nadu’s Mohd. Zuber in youth boys triple jump as he etched a meet mark of 15.50m on his opening leap thus successfully defends his title from the previous meet. Originally hails from Delhi, Zuber represented Uttar Pradesh in earlier years as he had his schooling in Allahabad.

Earlier this year he migrated to Chennai to join the Loyola College and hence started representing TN in the national meets. His senior colleague Mohamed Salahuddin easily won the junior men’s title with 15.71m, a distance that seems to be having a permanent marker in his recent history!

The last record of the championships came from UP steeplechaser Parul Chaudhary as she sunk the meet mark with 7:11.88 after involved in a neck-to-neck fight with Kerala’s M.P. Safeeda till the wire. The Kerala runner was just 1/100th of a second behind for the second place. Parul is holding the national record in this event at 6:57.68.

One athlete who missed the national mark yet need a special mention here is the young and upcoming shot putter Meghna Devanga. The Maharasthra girl tossed the 3 kg iron ball to 14.82m, that was just 7 cm short of Navjeet Kaur’s last year record.

Kerala’s lanky middle distance star P.U. Chitra won her maiden national title in 800m with a modest 2:13.24. The double gold medallist in distance events in both SAF junior championships in Ranchi and Asian Schools Athletics championships at Kuantan, Chitra is yet to decide which event to pursue seriously when she move in to collegiate athletics from next year onwards.

Kerala state won boys (213), girls (372) and overall (585) honours in the champions. Haryana (190) and Tamil Nadu (220.5) were runners-up in boys and girls divisions respectively. Hosts Karnataka was third among the girls and fifth overall.

The following athletes adjudged the “Best Athlete” awards—

BOYS:
U-20: Sumit Malik (Himachal Pradesh – 400m)

U-18: Nirbhay Singh (Haryana – Discus Throw)

U-16: Mankirat Singh (Punjab – Shot Put)

U-14: Sourav (Haryna – Shot Put)

GIRLS:

U-20: Archana Suseendran (Tamil Nadu – 100m)

U-18: G. Karthika (Tamil Nadu – Long Jump)

U-16: Tiasha Samadder (West Bengal – 400m)

U-14: Maharshi Baloda (Delhi – Shot Put)

There were nine national and an equal number of meet records have been improved in the above championships.