Haryana thrower Ashish breaks jr national record

Coimbatore, April 22 

Haryana’s Ashish Jakhar was the star of the final day of the Federation Cup Junior (U-20) National Athletics Championships as he set a new national record in the men’s hammer throw event here on Sunday.

Jakhar, a former gold medallist at the Asian Junior Championships, threw the 6kg iron ball and chain to 75.04 metres to shatter the previous record of 71.53m set by Harvinder Singh Dagar at the 2010 Asian Youth Championships in Hanoi. 

Punjab’s Damneet Singh, the 2017 World Youth Championships silver medallist, was second with an effort of 70.37m, while Rajasthan’s Nitesh Punia took the bronze with a best effort of 68.27m.

Haryana’s Ajay (51.06m) won the men’s discus throw gold medal. Another Haryana athlete, Sahil Silwal, won the men’s javelin throw gold with an effort of 74.05m. Punjab’s Arshdeep Singh (68.99m) and Kunwer Ajairaj Singh Rana (68.94m) finished second and third, respectively.

Punjab’s Suman breaks 5000m meet record

The day also saw a meet record being set in the women’s 5000m race. Punjab’s Suman Rani ran a time of 17 minutes, 2.67 seconds to erase the old mark of 17:10.95 set by Sanjivani Jadhav in 2015. 

In what was a fast-paced race, even the silver medallist, Poonam Sonune, went under Sanjivani’s old mark. Maharashtra’s Poonam had earlier won the women’s 3000m race and nearly made it two gold medals before eventually settling for second place with a time of 17:03.30. Savita Pal of Assam took the bronze with a time of 17:54.87.

This is Suman’s second medal of the event as well. She had won the 1500m bronze on Saturday in 4:38.05. Suman, a trainee at the Punjab Institute of Sports’ Patiala centre, had won the silver medal in 5000m in last year’s junior Federation Cup. The 18-year-old had finished second in 17:48.35, and in one year, she has improved her timing by over 45 seconds.

Haryana’s Gurpreet won the men’s 10000m gold medal in 31 minutes, 53.30 seconds.  Haryana’s Aman won gold in men’s 400m hurdles in 53.14 seconds, while his state-mate Nanhi won the women’s bronze in 1 minute, 2.98 seconds. 

Punjab’s Satnam Singh (21.98s) won the men’s 200m bronze medal. 

Punjab’s Khushbeen Kaur (12.52m) won the triple jump bronze. Khushbeen was leading the field after the fourth jump, but Tamil Nadu’s Priyadarshini S Suresh and Kerala’s Sandra Babu made jumps of 12.82m in their fifth attempts to push the Punjab athlete to third. Priyadarshini got the gold because her next best jump was better.

Haryana on top

Haryana finished on top of the team standings with 177 points, while Tamil Nadu was second with 151 points. Punjab finished sixth with 60 points. Jakhar and Jharkhand’s Sapna Kumari, who won the women’s 100m hurdles gold, were named the best athletes. — TNS, PTI