“A little!” quipped Sachin Dalal, when asked if the field was competitive. The 18-year-old Haryana lad truly outclassed the field in the discus throw with a heave of 58.11m in the Junior Federation Cup athletics meet at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday. With the feat, he broke the National record held by Kripal Singh (58.10m) by one centimetre and also made the Asian and World qualifying mark.
“I am excited to make the grade for both,” he said. With the gold, Dalal will be ranked No.1 in Asian juniors.
Punjab’s Navjeet Kaur Dhillon joined Dalal in creating a National record while qualifying for the Asian and World championships in the process. She clinched the gold in shot put with a 15.89m in her first attempt.
Having sealed the first place and being satisfied with the new mark, Navjeet skipped her remaining rounds and chose to egg on her teammate Manpreet Kaur Jr., who bagged the silver with 13.53m.
Uttarakhand’s Ramanpreet Kaur was third with 13.50m.
Dipika of Tamil Nadu bagged the gold medal in the girls’ 100m with 14.19 seconds while Meghana Shetty (Karnataka) and Dhanalakshmi (TN) finished third.
Even though Dipika made the grades in Asian and World, she couldn’t qualify as she was born in ’94 (only those born on or after ’95 are eligible). But Meghana made the Asian grade (she was born on June ’95) clocking 14.28s.
The results: Boys:
10,000m walk: 1. Karan Rathee (Har) 46:18.54, 2. Shailesh Kumar (MP) 46:20.63, 3. Manjit Singh (Pun) 48:54.30; 110m hurdles: 1. Nasimudheen (Ker) 14.35s, 2. Jashanjot Singh (Pun) 14.48, 3. Mohammed Nisan (TN) 14.58; 400m: 1. Arun Khokhar (Har) 48.17s, 2. Kamberdeep Singh (Har) 48.73, 3. R. Mohan Kumar (TN) 48.75; Long jump: 1. P. Anbu Raja (TN) 7.34m, 2. Sitender (Har) 7.03, 3. Satish Oraon (Jhr) 7.00; Discus throw: 1. Sachin Dalal (Har) 58.11 (NMR; OR: 58.10. Asian qualifying mark: 55.72 & World mark: 55.00), 2. Praveen Kumar (Raj) 54.76, 3. Nirbhay Singh (Har) 52.69; 4x100m relay: TN (Pugazendhi, Mohammed Nisan, Manoj, Arun) 42.85, 2. Haryana (Monu, Vikas, Manoj Chauhan, Vijay) 42.92, 3. Kerala (Abdulla Aboobacker, Subin, Nasimudheen, Anas Babu) 43.36.
Girls: 400m: 1. Vijayakumari (Kar) 56.67, 2. V.V. Jisha (Ker) 57.06, 3. Archana Adav 57.73; 100m hurdles: 1. Deepika (TN) 14.19s, 2. Meghana Shetty (Kar) 14.28, 3. Dhanalakshmi (TN) 15.13; Pole vault: 1. Emitha Babu (Ker) 3.00m, 2. Pavithra (Kar) 2.60, 3. Gopika Narayan (Ker) 2.60m; Shot-put: 1. Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (Pun) 15.89m (NR; OR Manpreet Kaur 15.44, Asian mark 13.98m & World 14.30m), 2. Manpreet Singh Jr. (Pun) 13.53, 3. Ramanpreet Kaur (Uttr) 13.50; Triple jump: 1. Bhairabi Roy (WB) 12.78m, 2. Bhumika Thakur (Pun) 12.67, 3. Athira Surendra (Ker) 12.49; 4x100m relay: 1. TN (Dhanalakshmi, Deepika, Vinodhini, Archana) 48.25s (NMR; OR: Kar 48.38), 2. Kerala (Elizabeth Antony, Angel P Devasia, Biji Shajan, Rengitha) 49.73, 3. Delhi (Rajni, Sweety, Twinkle Chaudhary, Inayat Gill) 51.13.
