KOCHI: Vishnupriya J of Palakkad put on a good show at the 18th National Federation Cup Junior Athletics Meet Championship held in Bhopal, bagging the gold medal in the U-20 women 400m hurdles event held on Wednesday. She clocked 1:02.57s to achieve the feat.
According to her coach and former national athlete C Haridas, the achievement also marks Vishnupriya’s return to athletics after a 6-month injury layoff. Haridas and his son H Arjun had given intense training sessions to Vishnupriya at the synthetic track in Palakkad Medical College ground to prepare her for the tournament.
Athletes Ancy Sojan and Suryajith RK also had a solid outing at the championship by securing silver medals at the championship. Thrissur native Ancy won the medal in the U-20 women 200m by clocking 24.24, her career-best. This is the second medal that she has won at the championship.
Hurdler Suryajith who is also coached by Haridas came second in the U-20 men 400m hurdles event with a time of 53.83s on the day. “Winning a silver medal is a great achievement for Suryajith as this is the first time that he is competing in the 400m hurdles event,” said Haridas. Palakkad star Akhil C Kumar also managed to charm the audience with his performance by capturing bronze in the U-20 triple jump event.