Vishvendra, Harendra set meet records on opening day of Youth Nationals

AFI Media

19/02/2019

Raipur. India’s young athletes got the 16th National Youth Athletics Championships off to a fine start setting two meet records on the opening day of the three-day competition in Raipur on Tuesday. Vishvendra Singh set a new meet mark in the boys 10000m race walk competition while Harendra Kumar created a meet record in the boys 1500m race.

In a fast paced contest, Vishvendra Singh of Madhya Pradesh crossed the finish line in 43:21.99 to erase the existing meet record of 44:41.31 that stood in the name of Sanjay Kumar who had set that mark at the 2017 edition of the tournament in Hyderabad. It wasn’t just the gold medalist who set a time faster than the old meet record though. Paramjeet Singh Bisht of Uttarakhand and Amit of Haryana also went under the old mark. Bisht clocked a time of 43:22.68 to claim the silver medal while Amit recorded a time of 43:36.26 to clinch the bronze medal. The three podium finishers were far ahead of the rest of the field with Amit finishing nearly four minutes ahead of the fourth-place finisher who clocked a time of 47:32.35.

Competing in the boys 1500m contest Harendra Kumar of Delhi wrote his name into the history books, crossing the finish line first with a time of 3:57.21. He eclipsed the previous record of 3.57.26 set by Avdesh Nagar at the 2017 Youth Nationals. Kumar finished just ahead of Haryana’s Ajay who took silver with a time of 3:57.75. Trailing some way behind to claim third place was Saurabh Rawat of Maharashtra who stopped the clock in 3:59.22.

Youth Olympic athlete Tai Bamhane claimed the gold medal in the girls 1500m race, finishing with a time of 4:38.28. The Nashik based runner finished over ten seconds in front of the rest of the field with silver medalist C Chanthini of Kerala clocking a time of 4:48.48. Bronze medal winner Akanksha Gaikwad of Maharashtra was some way further back with a time of 4:52.15.

A closer finish was to be found in the boys high jump competition with Vijay Malik of Delhi, Kumar Sanu Giri of Uttar Pradesh and Robindeep Singh Sran of Punjab all clearing a height of 2.01m. With three athletes jumping identical heights, the gold medal was awarded to Malik on the basis of fewest failed jumps. Giri and Sran took silver and third place respectively.

Another close contest took place in the boys long jump competition with just one centimeter separating Kerala’s Mohammad Ashif and Tamil Nadu’s P David. Ashif cleared 7.12m to take the gold medal while David settled for silver with a jump of 7.11m. Pankaj Verma of Haryana won the bronze medal with his very last jump of 7.01m.

It was a close margin that determined the winner of the silver and bronze medals in the girl’s triple jump competition. While the gold medal won by Maharashtra’s Sharvari Parulekar was never in doubt owing to her a best jump of 12.01m, Kerala’s Anu Mathew and Anusha M of Andhra Pradesh both had identical best jumps of 11.82m. It was Mathew who was awarded the silver medal on the basis of a second jump at the same mark, while Anusha’s second best effort was 11.77m.

Haryana athletes Shiksha and Anjali made it a 1-2 finish in the girls shot put event clinching gold and silver with best throws of 14.86m and 13.77m respectively. The third step on the podium was secured by M Sharmila of Tamil Nadu with a best effort of 13.17m.