GUWAHATI: Uttarakhand’s Ankita Dhyani provided a glimpse of her immense potential as a long distance runner by breaking Sunita Rani‘s National U-20 record in the women’s 5000m on the opening day of the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Having clocked 16:37.90 to win the Federation Cup Junior U-20 Athletics Championships last month, 18-year-old Ankita improved her time to 16:21.19, bettering the earlier national record of 16:21.59, set by Sunita at the Summer Universiade at the Stadio Cibali in Italy in 1997.
Earlier, Pavana Nagaraj (Karnataka) and Mohur Mukherjee (West Bengal) were locked in an intense battle at the high jump pit while Anurag Singh Kaler (Uttar Pradesh) and Nikhlesh (Haryana) challenged each other at the shot put circle to rewrite U-16 national records.
Anurag, a 11th standard student from Kafurpur in Amroha district, dominated the shot put competition by lowering the national record twice with his first two attempts over 19.23m and 20.16m.
Pavana claimed gold with a national U16 record with a clearance of 1.73m in her third and final attempt as she edged out Mohur.
Mohur cleared 1.69m and 1.71m on her first attempts while Pavana needed two tries to equal the national mark of 1.69m.
The pair was not even born when the national U16 record was pegged at 1.69m by Kavya Muthanna (Karnataka) in Kollam in 2003.
Daughter of national record holder Sahana Kumari, Pavana drew from the reserves of her energy to clear the 1.73m to claim national U16 record.
Vivek Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) won the boys U-18 javelin throw gold comfortably with a 72.83 effort on his last try. Each of his four legal throws sailed past the 70m mark.
In the battle for silver, Utsav Tanwar (Rajasthan) came up with a best throw of 67.75m on his final attempt to edge past Uttar Pradesh’s Izhar Ahmad by a mere 2cm.
As many as 1637 boys and girls in four age groups are competing in 145 events in the five-day event from 32 states and union territories.
The results (all finals):
Under 20:
Girls 5000m: 1. Ankita Dhyani (Uttarakhand) 16:21.19 (New National and Meet records. Old National Record: 16:21.59, Sunita Rani, Catania, 1997; Old Meet record: 17:02.00, Sanjeevani Jadhav, Ranchi, 2015); 2. Chatru Gumnaram (Rajasthan) 16:54.59; 3. Rebi Pal (Uttar Pradesh) 17:34.39.
Long Jump: 1. Ancy Sojan (Kerala) 6.20m; 2. Manisha Merel (Odisha) 5.63; 3. Tanushree Porel (West Bengal) 5.60.
Under 18:
Boys Javelin Throw: 1. Vivek Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) 72.83m; 2. Utsav Tanwar (Rajasthan) 67.75; 3. Izhar Ahmad (Uttar Pradesh) 67.65.
Girls Long Jump: 1. Agasara Nandini (Telangana) 5.80m; 2. Lakshmi Gemmela (Andhra Pradesh) 1.38; 3. M Kayva Manoharan (Tamil Nadu) 5.33.
Under 16:
Boys Shot Put: 1. Anurag Singh Kaler (UttarPradesh) 20.16m (New National & Meet Records; Old: 18.05m, Adhish Ghildiyal, Guntur, 2017) 2. Nikhlesh (Haryana) 19.13; 3. Mohammed Mohsin Qureshi (Telangana) 16.36.
Discus throw: 1. Ram Narayan Maurya (Delhi) 53.17; 2. Raman (Haryana) 51.91; 3. Avadhut Kumar Patil (Maharashtra) 49.77.
Girls High Jump: 1. Pavana Nagaraj (Karnataka( 1.73m (New National and Meet Records. Old: 1.69m, Kavya Muthanna, Kollam, 2003); 2. Mohur Mukherjee (West Bengal) 1.71; 3. Bidisha Kundu (West Bengal) 1.63.
Long Jump: 1. Sabita Toppo (Odisha) 5.59m; 2. ES Sivapriya (Kerala) 5.45; 3. Neha Parvin (West Bengal) 5.42.
Shot Put: 1. Rubasri Krishnamoorthi (Tamil Nadu) 14.35m; 2. V Madhumitha (Tamil Nadu) 13.98; 3. Gurleen Kaur (Punjab) 13.71.
Under 14:
Boys Ball Throw: 1. Babulal Kumar Paswan (Jharkhand) 69.05m, 2. PKKP Vishnu (Kerala) 67.71; 3. CR Harish Kumar (Tamil Nadu) 66.70.