UP’s Rakesh Gond broke the under-18 boys’ National pole vault record by a massive 15 centimetres and comfortably won the gold in the 15th National youth athletics championships here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, in a major upset, Karnataka’s S.B. Supriya shocked Haryana’s under-20 National record holder Rubina Yadav and won the girls’ high jump gold.
Both Supriya (1.75m) and silver medallist Rubina (1.73) bettered the meet record while Kerala’s Gayathry Sivakumar, last year’s inter-State National women’s champion, took the bronze with 1.69.
Big names pull out
Some of the big names like Asian junior champion Anu Kumar and Tamil Nadu’s Asian Youth Olympics qualification meet gold medallist Sreekiran Nandakumar, along with Delhi sprinter Nisar Ahmad, who came up with some impressive timings last year, have pulled out of the event.
The results (under-18): Boys: 3000m: 1. Sunil Singh (MP) 8:33.57s, 2. Ravi Dahiya (Har) 8:34.43, 3. Puneet (Har) 8:40.17. 2000m steeple chase: 1. Md. Noor Hasan (UP) 5:54.37s (MR, OR 6:00.28); 2. Atul Gamit (Guj) 5:58.13, 3. Manish Sharma (MP) 6:01.31.
Pole vault: 1. Rakesh Gond (UP) 4.90m (NR, OR 4.75); 2. Shekhar Kumar Pandey (UP) 4.40, 3. Ganesh Priyan (TN) 4.20. Discus: 1. Aniket Kala (Utk) 56.26m, 2. Ikram Ali Khan (MP) 54.63, 3. Dhanvir Singh (Pun) 53.11. Javelin: 1. Rohit Yadav (UP) 77.41m, 2. Suraj Kumar (UP) 72.77, 3. Sudama Kumar Yadav (Bih) 71.06.
Girls: 3000m: 1. Ankita Dhyani (Utk) 10:14.37s, 2. Pragati Mulane (Mah) 10:19.80, 3. Muskan Chotiara (Guj) 10:25.15. 2000m steeple chase: 1. Kajal Sharma (UP) 7:11.99s (MR, OR 7:21.23); 2. Vaishnavi Sawant (Mah) 7:17.61, 3. Vandana Mori (Guj) 7:37.41.
High jump: 1. S.B. Supriya (Kar) 1.75m (MR, OR 1.70), 2. Rubina Yadav (Har) 1.73, 3. Gayathry Sivakumar (Ker) 1.69.
Pole vault: 1. R. Sreelakshmi (Ker) 2.50m, 2. Navana Lakshmi (Ker) 2.30.
Discus: 1. Pooja (Har) 39.97m, 2. Neetika Verma (UP) 39.09, 3. Srushti Ulavappa Kaliwal (Kar) 37.68.