New Delhi
The Indian contingent continued to showcase their potential at the 21st Asian U20 Athletics Championships that concluded Saturday in Dubai by winning 29 medals, including seven gold, which was better than the 19 medals (six gold, seven silver, six bronze) won at the previous edition held in Yecheon, South Korea in 2023.
At the 2024 edition of Asian U20 meet in Dubai, the Indian team also won 11 silver and equal number of bronze medals to finish second in medal standing behind China.
This is for the first time since 1996 Indian contingent took the second spot in medal standing at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships.
Promising pole vaulter Dev Meena won 19th medal for the Indian team, a bronze, in the men’s pole vault event that concluded late Friday night. He scaled a height of 5.10m.
On Saturday Indian team started their medal rush through high hurdler Unnathi Ayyappa who won bronze, India 20th medal, in women’s 100m hurdles with a time of 13.65 seconds. Sabita Toppo finished 7th with a time of 14.49 secs.
Laxita Vinod Sandilea won silver in the women’s 1500m. Her time was 4:25.63 seconds. It was her second silver of the competition. Earlier she had also won silver in 800m.
Gaurav Bhaskar Bhosale sprinted home to clinch silver in the men’s 3,000m. His time was 8:31.20. Vikas Kumar Bind added bronze to the team’s tally with a time of 8:33.00.
Indian athletes continued to excel in the women’s 5,000m track race. Ekta Dey clinched silver with a time of 16:49.70 seconds, while Sunita Devi won bronze. She clocked 16:52.54 seconds.
Long jumper Md Atta Sajid added bronze to the Indian contingent. His best jump was 7.52m
Indian men’s 4x100m relay won the bronze medal with a national record of 40.01 seconds. The women’s 4x100m relay team won bronze but were later disqualified for baton exchange outside the changing zone at the third leg.
In the longer relay, the women’s 4x400m relay team (Anushka Dattatray, Kanista Teena Maria, SAI Sangeetha Dodla, Sandramol Sabu) won gold with a time of 3:41.50. The men’s 4x400m relay team (Abiram Pramod, Navpreet Singh, Nikhil Suhas Dhake, Aman Choudhary) posted a time of 3:09.36 to win silver.
