Coimbatore
Budding javelin throwers hogged the limelight on the penultimate day of the 38th National Junior Athletics Championships here at the Nehru Stadium on Thursday.
While top four finishers in the girls U14 group bettered the national record in the kids javelin competition, top two athletes were also successful in breaking the previous meet record in the boys U14 kids javelin throw event.
However, it was Himanshi from Haryana who walked away with the U14 kids javelin title. Her gold medal winning throw of 44.05m was nearly nine meters better than the previous national record of 34.46m recorded by Tejaswani Dhal in February this year in Patna.
In the boys U14 kids javelin, Bihar’s Kishu Singh won gold medal with a throw of 64.56m to erase the previous meet record of 57.08m in the name of Dhairya Alpenshbhai set in 2022.
Haryana’s Deepika also won U18 javelin throw gold with a distance of 54.13m, which was a meet record. The previous record of 49.05m was in the name of Pushpa Jakhar recorded in 2015 in Ranchi. Jharkhand.
The kids javelin event was introduced at the domestic competitions two years ago to encourage budding athletes to take up javelin. There has been a big surge in javelin throw post 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held in Japan in 2021.
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, India’s ace javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win track and field gold. Apart from Commonwealth and Asian Games gold, Chopra is reigning Olympic and world champion too.
Results:
Day 3:
Boys: U18: 10,000m race walk: Amit Kumar (Chhattisgarh) 43:36.58 secs, Sachin (Haryana) 43:33.31 secs, Ningombam Malemngane (Manipur) 44:52.40 secs.
Boys: U14: Long jump: Krishna Sharma (Delhi) 6.35m, Somu Madavi (Telangana) 5.98m, Bharathvaj M (Tamil Nadu) 5.98m.
U14: Kids javelin: Kishu Singh (Bihar) 64.56m (meet record), Hitesh Singh Gariya (Uttarakhand) 57.99m, Bhiky Barman (West Bengal) 55.80m.
Girls
U20: Javelin throw: Nishi Kumari (Bihar) 45.00m, P Arpita Archa Sahoo (Odisha) 44.20m, Pratiksha Patel (Uttar Pradesh) 44.12m.
Girls: U18: 5000m: Aarti (Haryana) 24:02.16 secs, Khushbu Yadav (Rajasthan) 24:49.84 secs, Payal (Haryana) 24:55.50 secs.
U18: Javelin throw: Deepika (Haryana) 54.13m (meet record), Navpreet Kaur (Punjab) 47.52m, Versha (Punjab) 47.34m).
Girls: U-14: Long jump: M Jenista Shanu (Tamil Nadu) 5.30m, Komal (Haryana) 4.95m, Alluri Manu Sri (Telangana) 4.94m.
U14: Kids javelin: Minakshi (Haryana) 44.05m (meet record), Tejaswani Dhal (Odisha) 38.51m, Chandhini Aahla Sarimal (Andhra Pradesh) 36.42m.
