Hammer throwers Ashish Jakhar and Damneet Singh got India’s challenge in the 2018 Asian Junior Athletics Championship to a rousing start as they comfortably grabbed the gold and silver with personal best efforts in Gifu, Japan, on Thursday.
Jakhar created a new national u-20 record to clinch the gold medal with a throw of 76.86 in his second attempt while Damneet bagged the silver with a best throw of 74.08.
The 19-year-old, who had broken the U-20 national mark in Junior Federation Cup in April, began with a throw of 74.08 to take the lead and was assured of the gold medal when he broke the national mark in his very second attempt.
Even Damneet faced no challenge for his second spot as he began with a throw of 70.42 and maintained the 70+ standard before hurling the 6kg hammer to his personal best distance in the last attempt. Japan’s Masanobu Hattori clinched the bronze with a final throw of 69.34m.
Bronze for Priyadarshini, Sonune
After the throwers opened India’s account triple jumper Priyadarshini Suresh grabbed the triple jump bronze medal with a personal best jump of 13.08m in her second attempt. Compatriot Sandra Babu was fourth with a best jump of 12.70m in her last two attempts.
The gold went to Vietnam’s VU Thi Ngoc Ha who cleared a distance of 13.22m in her very first attempt while China’s Youqi Pan was the clear second with a final jump of 13.21m.
In the last medal event of the day, Nashik girl Poonam Sonune kept her composure despite an extreme high pace of the race for her to finish third with a timing of 17:03.75. Japan’s Mikuni Yada clinch the gold with almost half a minute advantage with a timing of 16:31.65 while China’s Lihua Niu took the silver with a timing of 16:55.54.
Suman Rani, who had beaten Sonune in the Junior Federation Cup, could not come anywhere near her personal best and finished fifth with a timing of 18:05.71.
Indians also had a good outing in the women’s 400m heats and men’s 1500m heats.
Pre-event favourite Jisna Matthew topped the 400 metres heat 1 event with a timing of 54.78 to qualify for the final. Compatriot Rachna, however, failed to qualify for the final after clocking a time of 58.07 to finished fifth in the second heat.
In the 1500 metres men’s heats, Ajit Kumar won his heat with a timing of 3:58.46 while Ankit Sharma finished second in Heat 2 with a timing of 3:59.11. Both qualified for Friday’s final.
The only disappointment was 100-metre sprinter Gurindervir Singh failing to qualify to the finals. He holds the U20 national record of 10.47 seconds but could only manage a timing of 11.09 in the heats.
