National Jr Athletics: Ankita, Pavana, Kaler rewrite records

Guwahati, Feb 6 (SocialNews.XYZ) Uttarakhand's Ankita Dhyani announced her arrival as a middle and long-distance runner of immense potential by breaking Sunita Rani's National under-20 record in the women's 5000m on the opening day of the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium here today.

Having clocked 16:37.90 seconds in winning the 5000m title at the junior Federation Cup in Bhopal on January 26, 18-year-old Ankita improved her time to 16:21.19. She thus improved on the national record of 16:21.59 seconds that Sunita Rani had set in the Summer Universiade at the Stadio Cibali in Catania, Italy on August 26, 1997.

As per policy of Athletics Federation of India (AFI), all record breaking performances will be considered for the books only when it is followed by on-the-spot sample collection for dope tests. However, no samples for tests were collected on the first day as National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) was conspicuous by its absence.

"A technical panel will take a call on the matter whether without dope test records should be approved or not," AFI president Adille Sumariwalla told IANS.

Earlier, Pavana Nagaraj (Karnataka) and Mohur Mukherjee (West Bengal) battled intensely at the high jump pit while Anurag Singh Kaler (Uttar Pradesh) and Nikhlesh (Haryana) locked horns at the shot put circle to rewrite under-16 national records.

Pavana claimed gold with a national under-16 record clearance of 1.73 m, edging out Mohur. Kaler, a 11th standard student from Kafurpur in Amroha district, dominated the shot put competition by breaking the national record twice with his first two attempts over 19.23 m and 20.16 m.

Vivek Kumar (Madhya Pradesh) won the boys under-18 javelin throw gold comfortably with a 72.83m effort on his last try. Each of his four legal throws sailed past the 70 m mark. In the battle for silver, Utsav Tanwar (Rajasthan) came up with a best throw of 67.75 m on his final attempt to edge past Uttar Pradesh's Izhar Ahmad by a mere 2 cm.

As many as 1637 boys and girls in four age groups are competing in 145 events in the five-day National Junior Athletics Championships from 32 states and union territories, making it the country's single largest sporting event since the outbreak of Covid-19 last year.

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 (WestBengal) 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, KavyaMuthanna, 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

Source: IANS