Madhya Pradesh’s Ekta Pradeep Dey rewrote the women’s national U-20 record to win the 3,000m steeplechase clocking 10:10.08secs on the final day of the 22nd National Junior U-20 Federation Athletics Championships here on Sunday. The previous record was 10:29.50 secs while the Asian U-20 qualification time is a modest 11:30.00.
Odisha sprinter Dondapati Mrutyumjaya also shared the limelight. A day after missing the Asian U20 qualification time in 100m, he ran a brilliant 21.59 secs to win the 200m, bettering the qualification time for the Asian meet — 21.60secs. On Saturday he won the 100m clocking 10.67 secs, missing the qualification mark by 0.17secs.
Uttar Pradesh javelin throwers were also in the winners’ circle. Dipanshu Sharma won the title with a throw of 68.89m while Rohan Yadav clinched silver (68.29m). Uttarakhand’s Ajeet Kumar Yadav was third (66.94m). All three throwers bettered the qualification mark of 65.49m. The qualification marks were met in the men’s and women’s 5,000m too.
Gujarat’s Laxita Vinod Sandilea completed a double, adding the 800m to her 1500m win on Sunday.
Junior national chief coach Nagapuri Ramesh was confident of India putting up a solid show at the Junior Asian Athletics Championships at Dubai next month, leading to the junior worlds in Lima, Peru in August.
“There has been a big change in the perception for Indian athletics since Neeraj Chopra won the Olympics and World Championships gold in javelin. Our juniors too have been doing wonders at the international level, so I am pretty sure about India’s better show at both the Asian and World championships for juniors,” he said.
“Even at an international seminar of athletics, many foreign coaches asked me the secret behind the bench strength in javelin in India. They all were impressed with the performance of Indian throwers, including Chopra.”
