Chennai
Good start for Indian contingent as Pooja and Siddharth Choudhary claimed gold medals with record breaking performance in their respective events on the opening day of the three-day South Asian Junior Athletics Championship that got underway here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Wednesday.
It was 1-2 in the women’s 100m sprint for the Indian team, while Sri Lanka won gold and silver in the men’s 100m dash.
Meet records were also broken in both men and women’s 100m race.
Pooja comfortably won gold at 1.80m, which was better than the previous meet record of 1.75m. She made efforts to improve her national U20 high jump record of 1.83m set recently in Peru at the 2024 World Athletics U20 meet, but failed to cross the bar at 1.84m.
On his way to gold in men’s shot put, Siddharth Choudhary hurled the iron ball to a distance of 19.19m, a meet record. Previous record was 18.53m. Compatriot Anurag Singh Kaler won silver with a distance of 18.91m.
Away from the field events, Sri Lanka dominated the middle distance events.
The fourth edition of South Asian Junior Athletics Championship being held under the aegis of South Asian Athletics Federation (SAAF) will give more opportunity to athletes at the regional level, Dr Lalit Bhanot, president of SAAF said on the sidelines of the regional competition.
“Regional competitions have its advantage as competitors will have to travel less and at the same time get good competition close to home,” Dr Lalit Bhanot, president of SAAF said.
“All seven SAAF countries are competing here in Chennai,” Bhanot added. “More regional events will be conducted in future.”
Next month senior SAAF athletics meet will be held in Ranchi, Jharkhand. The 2024 SAAF cross country will be held in Pakistan. “The dates of the cross country will be finalised shortly,” Bhanot said. “There is a plan to organise a senior SAAF competition every two years.”
Results:
Men
100m: Wijesinghe Merone (Sri Lanka) 10.41 seconds (meet record, previous 10.61 seconds), Weeraratna Dineth (Sri Lanka) 10.49 seconds, Mruthyam Rajaram (India) 10.56 seconds.
800m: HD Shavindu Awishka (Sri Lanka) 1:49.83 seconds (meet record, previous record 1:52.99), Vinod Kumar (India) 1:50.07 seconds, Bopanna Klappa (India) 1:50.45 seconds.
Shot put: Siddharth Choudhary (India) 19.19m (meet record, previous record 18.53m), Anurag Singh Kaler (India) 18.91m, AW Jayavi Ranhidha (Sri Lanka) 15.62m.
Women:
100m: Abinaya Rajarajan (India) 11.77 seconds (meet record, previous record 11.92 seconds), V Sudheeksha (India) 11.92 seconds, S Wijetungage (Sri Lanka) 12.04 seconds.
800m: MGT Abhisheka Premasiri (Sri Lanka) 2:10.17 seconds, Laxmi Priya Kisan (India) 2:10.87 seconds, UM Sansala Himashani S (Sri Lanka) 2:12.13 seconds.
High jump: Pooja (India) 1.80m (meet record, previous meet record 1.75m), DK Timeshi (Sri Lanka) 1.65m, VP Nethra Samadi (Sri Lanka) 1.65m.
