The National Youth Athletics Championships concluded on a strong note in Raipur on Thursday with meet records and a national record being registered on the final day of competition.
The star of the day was Harshita Sehrawat of Delhi who shattered the existing national mark in the girls hammer throw event by nearly seven metres.
The 16-year-old Sehrawat recorded a best throw of 61.65m to eclipse the previous record of 54.66m by Punam Jhakkar at the Coimbatore Youth Nationals in 2016.
Sehrawat needed just one throw to claim the national record. She recorded a mark of 59.45m in her very first attempt.
She crossed the 60m mark with her fourth attempt of 60.87m. Her best effort of 61.65m was in her penultimate attempt before closing out with a mark of 58.93m.
Sehrawat’s effort left the rest of the field well behind. Haryana athlete Ritu recorded a best effort of 51.98m to claim the silver medal. Nikita of Delhi claimed bronze with a score of 49.68m.
Shanmughan of Andhra Pradesh set the track on fire in the boys 200m race, clocking a time of 21.87 to win the gold medal. He also eclipsed Amiya Mallick’s previous meet record of 21.89 was set at the Madurai edition of the tournament in 2009.
Shanmughan’s time was nearly a second faster than that of second place finisher Aniket Chaudhary of Telangana. Chaudhary crossed the finish line at 22.53. Akshay Boro of Assam clinched bronze with a time of 22.65.
In contrast to other one-sided finishes, the youth girls’ 800m saw a tight battle to determine the gold and silver medal winner.
Priscilla Daniel of Kerala was the winner, crossing the finish line with a new meet record of 2.08.56. She erased the old mark of 2.10.52 set by Abitha Mary Manuel in 2016. Haryana’s Pooja also ran broke the previous record with a time of 2.09.01. Stephy Sara Koshy of Kerala was third on the podium with a time of 2.11.71.
Also setting a new meet record was Vishrutha of Tamil Nadu who managed the effort in the girls 400m hurdles. The 17-year-old clocked a time of 1.01.81 to shatter the existing mark of 1.02.52 set by Vishnu Priya in Vadodara last year.
Vishrutha was a clear winner with Nirali Savani of Gujarat finishing second in 1.06.87. KS Nandana of Kerala clinched the third spot with a time of 1.07.78.
The other meet records to fall were in the boys 1000m sprint medley and girls 1000m sprint medley. The boys team of Kerala F created the new mark with a time of 1.56.78 while the girls squad of Kerala D did the same in their event with a time of 2.13.57. The existing meet records were 1.57.42 and 2.14.20 respectively.
Earlier on day two, 41 athletes failed age verification tests. As a result, the Athletics Federation of India’s management committee disqualified the athletes in question, and results of more than 20 events were revised.