Dhanvir, Vishnu Priya set meet records on final day of Youth Nationals

AFI Media
23 July 2018

Vadodara. Punjab shot-putter Dhanvir Singh and Kerala hurdler Vishnu Priya wrote themselves into the record books on the final day of the 15th National Youth Athletics championships as they registered meet records in the men’s shotput and women’s 400m hurdles respectively.

Dhanvir Singh had begun his event on a very strong note, erasing the earlier meet record of 19.34m set by Navtejdeep Singh in 2011 with his very first throw of the competition. Singh started with a throw of 19.66m, before improving that mark and setting the new meet record of 19.69m on his fifth throw of the competition. Such was Singh’s dominance in the competition that he made four efforts over 19m while none of his competitors could cross that figure even once. He would make an effort to improve on his meet record in his final attempt but only managed a throw of 18.89m.

Even that though would have been enough to win a gold medal. The silver medal in the competition was claimed by Adish Ghildiyal of Uttarakhand who recorded a best effort of 18.23m in his fifth throw of the competition. Ghildiyal, the national U-16 record holder was not in his best form as he registered only two clean throws in the competition. The bronze medal in the competition was claimed by Aniket Kala of Uttarakhand who had a best effort of 17.98m.

The women’s 400m hurdles were similarly one sided in favour of J Vishnu Priya. The 17-year-old athlete from Kerala crossed the finish line in a season’s best time of 1:02.52 seconds. In doing so, she erased the previous meet record of 1:02.58 seconds set by PO Sanya in Bambolim in 2015. Priya was far ahead of the field with the silver medallist trailing nearly three seconds behind. The medal was won by Karnataka’s K Prajna who clocked 1:05.08 seconds. The third step on the podium went to Jyoshna Sabar of Odisha who clocked 1:05.82 seconds.

Another athlete coming close to a meet record was Kerala’s Ancy Sojan. The 17-year-old clocked 24.91 seconds in the final of the women’s 200m race. Although it was shy of Dutee Chand’s meet record of 24.49seconds recorded in 2012, Sojan had the disadvantage of having to run the semifinals of the 200m in the morning. Sojan still managed to improve on her semifinal timing of 24.95 seconds in the final. The silver medal in the competition was taken by Kirti Bhoite who clocked 25.42 seconds. The bronze medal went to Giridharani of Tamil Nadu who clocked 25.50 seconds.

Meanwhile Sandra Babu earned her second gold medal in the jumps competition at the Manjalpur Sports Complex in three days. The 17-year-old from Kerala added the triple jump gold medal to the long jump gold she had won on Saturday. Babu cleared a distance of 12.51m to get the better of Tamil Nadu’s J Coleshiya who had a best jump of 12.24m. The bronze medal went to Maharashtra’s Sharvari Parulekar who made a successful jump of 11.16m.

It was a double silver medal for sprinter Karan Hegiste. The 16-year-old from Maharashtra had won a silver medal in the men’s 100m competition on Sunday evening and he added another silver in the men’s 200m on Monday. Hegiste clocked 22.28 seconds to finish behind Karnataka’s VA Shashikanth who crossed the finish line in 22.16 seconds. The bronze medal went to Ashish of Chandigarh who clocked 22.30seconds.

Dhanvir, winner of boys shot put event, and Aparna Roy, winner of girls 100m hurdles gold medal was declared as the ‘best athletes’ of the meet. The overall team championships title went to Haryana (165pts) while Kerala finished as runner-up with 150points.

DAY 3  RESULTS – Click Here

ONLY FINALS RESULTS – Click Here

DETAILED RESULTS – Click Here

TEAM SCORES – Click Here

BEST ATHLETES OF THIS MEET – Click Here