Gayathri Sivakumar, the 12-year-old from Kochi, soared to a new meet record in the girls’ under-14 high jump event, providing the perfect take-off to the 29th junior National athletics championship, which got underway here on Tuesday.
P.U. Chitra, another Kerala athlete, rewrote the meet record in the girls’ under-20 1500m event.
The day’s honours — with regard to gold medals won — were well distributed, with Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Haryana all sharing the spoils.
Gayathri, the sprightly seventh-standard student from Bhavan’s Vidyamandir, holds the national record at 1.59 metres but today she cleared 1.55 metres (on her second attempt), failing in all her three attempts at 1.58 metres. “The early morning chill was something she could not cope with and took time adjusting,” said her coach Manoj T. Thomas.
Chitra led the field from start to finish clocking 4:33.82s, besting Sunita Rani’s 1996 meet record of 4:35.00; Geeta Manral had set a faster national record of 4:27.40 in 1999.
Tamil Nadu’s S. Priyadarshini leapt 5.63 metres in the girls’ under-16 long jump event, pipping Kerala’s Rugma Udayan, who did 5.62.
There was much focus on the boys’ under-14 long jump too, which was incidentally the first event of the day. Haryana’s Sunil clinched the gold with a 6.41 metres jump, ahead of Kerala’s Salvin Saju (6.16) and Karnataka’s Satyanath Lokesh (6.14).
The championship was formally inaugurated later in the afternoon.
The results:
Boys: U-20: 1500m: 1. M. Naresh (AP) 3:59.63s; 2. Anand (Har) 4:00.06; 3. Albin Sunny (Ker) 4:01.04; Shot put: 1. Chaitanya Deep (Del) 17.07m; 2. Surender Singh (Har) 16.70; 3. Pradeep Kumar (UP) 16.00.
U-18: 1500m: 1. Ajay Kumar (Asm) 3:59.34s; 2. Shashi Bhushan (WB) 3:59.34; 3. Twinkle Tomy (Ker) 4:02.80.
U-16: 1000m: 1. Arshdeep Singh (Pun) 2:31.93s; 2. Shah Faizal (MP) 2:32.52; 3. Beant Singh (Del) 2:33.62; High jump: 1. Anil Sahu (Mah) 1.95m; 2. N. Mohammed (TN) 1.95; 3. Geo Jose (Ker) 1.93; Discus: 1. Sanjay Kumar (UP) 47.70m; 2. Abhishek Darali (Del) 46.65; 3. Saddam Hussain (Del) 46.08.
U-14: 600m: 1. V. Barath (TN) 1:27.09s; 2. Heera Pal (UP) 1:27.52; 3. D. Srikanth (AP) 1:27.54; Long jump: 1. Sunil (Har) 6.41m; 2. Salvin Saju (Ker) 6.16; 3. S. Lokesh (Kar) 6.14.
Girls: U-20: 1500m: 1. P.U. Chitra (Ker) 4:33.82s, NMR (Old: 4:35.00, Sunita Rani, 1996); 2. Monika Choud (MP) 4:36.80; 3. M.P. Safeeda (Ker) 4:41.86; Discus: 1. Suman Devi (Pun) 40.75m; 2. Manisha (Har) 40.59; 3. Jyoti (Har) 39.62.
U-18: 1500m: 1. Jyoti Saini (Pun) 4:53.28s; 2. Preeti Mehta (Utk) 4:55.34; 3. Rishu Singh (Mah) 4:57.50.
U-16: 1000m: 1. Durga Pramod (Mah) 3:03.03s; 2. Nitu Kumari (Jhk) 3:04.22; 3. Ankita Chaudhary (Utk) 3:06.26; Long jump: 1. S. Priyadarshini (TN) 5.63m; 2. Rugma Udayan (Ker) 5.62; 3. Anita Das (WB) 5.46.
U-14: 600m: 1. L. Samyasri (TN) 1:39.55s; 2. Kamaljeet (Har) 1:40.33; P. Kavya (AP) 1:40.71.
High jump: 1. Gayathri Sivakumar (Ker) 1.55m, NMR (OR: 1.52, Jueeli Badhe, 2010); 2. C. Druthi (Kar) 1.47; 3. S. Ananthi (TN) 1.35.
