THRISSUR: The second day of the Kerala State School Athletics Championship began with 5,000 m race of senior boys in which Abhidev Sathyan from Idukki won the gold medal. On Wednesday, the finals of 21 events were held.
To review the arrangements of the sports event and also to motivate young athletes, Thrissur Range DIG Ajitha Beegum and City Police Commissioner Ankith Ashokan visited the venue. The young athletes were exuberant after meeting the top police officers. Though there was high temperature as the district witnessed a clear sky, the students put up their best performance with Palakkad leading the points tally with 11 gold medals.
The main competitions held on Wednesday were race walk, shot put, hurdles, hammer throw, and pole vault. The organisers ensured that the competitions stuck to the schedule. Anupriya V S, of GHSS Udinoor, created a record in shot put (3 kg). The existing state record in the category is 14.91 m by Megha Mariyam Mathew while Anupriya surpassed it with a record of 16.15 m.
Among the schools participating in the meet, Ideal EHSS, Kadakassery, in Malappuram leads with four gold medals and 32 points. Local people also gathered in large numbers to watch the scintillating performance of young athletics, especially those belonging to lower primary category. “It is definitely a new experience for us to watch the state-level sports meet. We are excited to see the hard work put up by youngsters to come out with flying colours,” said Sruthi, a student from Kunnamkulam, who visited the synthetic track at Kunnamkulam Government School.