A fine effort by Dhirendra Kumar in pole vault lit up the second day of the 13th National youth athletics at the University Stadium here on Friday.
The Gujarat lad cleared 4.72m to break the National record of Parminder Kumar Patel of Uttar Pradesh (4.70m), set in 2010. He also erased the existing meet record of Haryana’s Kundan (4.41m), established in 2011.
“I was hoping to break the National record here,” Dhirendra told The Hindu . “My personal best was 4.60m and I was confident of getting past it.”
The day also saw M. Sreeshankar of Kerala (boys’ long jump) and Ayesha Patel of Uttar Pradesh (girls’ hammer throw) set new meet records. Sreeshankar obliterated the 2009 mark of Ankit Kumar of Madhya Pradesh, while Ayesha wiped out the record set last year by Poonam Jakhar of Haryana.
Going into the final day, Uttar Pradesh continued to be in the lead for the race for the overall title, with 60 points. But host and defending champion Kerala was in hot pursuit, with 57 points. Haryana has 51 points, while Maharashtra has 49.5.
The results: Boys: 1500m: 1. Ajay Kumar Bind (Asm) 4:03.30; 2. Rakesh Mandal (Utk) 4:04.66; 3. Prashant Lodhi (Man) 4:05.11.
110m hurdles: 1. Alden Anil Naronha (Mah) 14.36s; 2. Maharaja (TN) 14.59s; 3. Amandeep Singh (Pun) 14.87s.
Long jump: 1. M. Sreeshankar (Ker) 7.49m: NMR; OR: 7.41m; 2. M. Mahesh (TN) 7.18m; 3. S. Lokesh (Kar) 7.14m.
Pole vault: 1. Dhirendra Kumar (Guj) 4.72m: NR; OR: 4.70m; 2. Manish Singh (Del) 4.40m; 3. Krishan (Har) 4.30m.
Hammer: 1. Vikranta (UP) 68.28m; 2. Mohammed Arshlan (UP) 67.54m; 3. Meraj Ali (UP) 67.33m.
10 km walk: 1. Naveen (Har) 47:01.88; 2. Vijay (Har) 47:54.21; 3. Sachin (Del) 47:54.99.
Girls: 1500m: 1. Neetu Kumari (Jha) 4:53.58; 2. Dolly Ghosh (Ben) 5:00.49; 3. Anagha Tom (Ker) 5:03.38.
100m hurdles: 1. V. Jyothi (Tel) 14.68s; 2. Sapna Kumari (Jha) 14.69s; 3. Anjaly Thomas (Ker) 15.39s.
High jump: 1. Rajasree Das (Ben) 1.61m; 2. Payal Kanwar (Raj) 1.61m; 3. K.A. Rubeena (Ker) 1.58m.
Hammer: 1. Ayesha Patel (UP) 52.71m; NMR; OR: 52.19m; 2. Radhana Yadav (Bih) 47.45m; 3. Sneha Jadhav (Mah) 45.89m.
5 km walk: 1. Bandana Patel (Bih) 26:20.73; 2. Manju Rani (Pun) 26:21.22; 3. Pushpa (Har) 27:25.29.
