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National Youth Athletics
Ashish, Rajesh and Durga sets new national records on day-2
Bambolim (Goa) – 17 April 2015:
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.