VIJAYAWADA: The ground of Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) was chock-a-block with athletes, who came from across the country to participate in the 35th Junior National Athletics Championship-2019 that began on Saturday. The championship, organised by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) witnessed a huge participation on the very first day itself.
Haryana’s Gurpreet and Himachal Pradesh’s Seema clocked personal best timings to win the boys under-20 10,000 mt and girls under-20 5,000 mt, respectively. Gurpreet marked his return to track with a victory, pulling away from his pursuers to win the 10,000 mt in 30:52.00, his personal best timing in covering the distance. He was away from major competitions since claiming the bronze in 5,000 mt and silver in 10,000 mt in the under-20 category last year.
Seema overcame the disappointment of missing a medal in the Federation Cup for Juniors in Tiurvannamalai in September, with a comfortable win in the girls under-20 5,000 mt, with a personal best timing of 17:03.14. It was an improvement on her timing of 17:24.41, clocked in Moodbidri last November 24. Poonam Dinkar Sonune, who won the 3,000-5000 mt double in the last edition in Ranchi, fell behind at the halfway stage after tripping, thereby leaving Amrita Patel and Seema to battle it out for the top spot. Amrita Patel, was ahead almost all throughout the race, but Seema, whose greater competitive experience made her stick to the leader like a shadow, sprinted ahead of her with 300 mt left to touch the finishing line.
In the field events, Kerala long jumper Sandra Babu excelled with a personal best of 6.16 mt. Sandra Babu’s opening jump of 6.16 mt shattered the field record in the girls under-20 long jump event. She had another leap of 6.10 mt, alongside two fouls. However, Odisha’s Manisha Merel showed that she could be a fine competitor, with three jumps beyond the 6 mt mark, each a personal best, but while she kept improving, she was unable to cross the 6.07 mt mark, which was however good enough for the second place.
Delhi’s Arvind Sharma, a silver medalist last year, won the boys under-16 discus throw with a 50.16 mt effort that came alongside three fouls. Unfortunately, the host State could not claim any win on the first day of the five-day-long championship.
Keeping with its no-needle policy, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) barred Chandigarh’s Parkash Singh and Rajasthan’s Dhananjay from taking part in the championships. Syringes and vials were found in their bags in the Call Room.