Vijayawada: P U Chitra won his second gold by winning women’s 3000m race with a new meet record on the concluding day of the 30th National Junior Athletics Championships here on Sunday. Kerala runner Chitra, who won the 1500m gold on the opening day, added another in junior women’s 3000m race today with a meet record of 9:56.92.
Asian junior silver medallist Sharwan Kharb of Haryana took the junior men’s 10000m gold, clocking 30:57.43 for another distance double. Earlier, he had won the 5000m race. Uttar Pradesh’s Parul Chaudhray improved the national mark in junior women’s 3000m steeplechase with a time of 11:04.80.
UP athletes also dominated the other three steeple races contested today through Haribaksh Singh (6:05.47) and Khushbu Gupta (7:25.19), winners in 2000m steeplechase for youth boys and girls divisions respectively.
Shot putter Anamika Das heaved the iron ball to 13.01m, which was very close to Meghana Devanga’s national and meet mark of 13.28m, in the girls Under-16 category.
Athletes from Kerala also dominated in number of other events. Athira Muralidhran annexed the junior women’s hammer throw gold by hurling the ball and chain to 48.09m.
Kerala sprinters grab four out six 200m finals contested in the evening. Reigning champion Jisna Mathew successfully retained her 200m crown to add it to her 400m win earlier that fetch her the Best Athlete title in the girls Under-16 division.
Asian junior silver medallist Jessy Joseph won her third successive 800m gold in junior nationals.
Kerala won the overall championship for the third successive time with 528.5 points. Haryana, which temporarily put a stop to Kerala’s unbeaten 14-year run since 1998 during the 2011 junior nationals at Ranchi, once again finished runners-up with 394 points.
However, Haryana took the boys’ trophy with 289 points ahead of Uttar Pradesh (181). Kerala retained the girls’ trophy with 361 points while Tamil Nadu got the second spot in 222 points. PTI
