India’s talented high jumper Pooja improved her national and meet records on the second day of the 22nd Asian Under-20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong on Friday. By winning the gold medal with a jump of 1.93m, Pooja broke the decade-old national record of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari in 2012. Pooja’s performance on Friday also bettered the previous Asian Under-20 meet record of 1.90m set by Svetlana Radzivil of Uzbekistan in 2006.
Race walker Nitin Gupta made a strong start by finishing first in the men’s 5000m race walk. The race walker won the gold medal with a time of 19:47.49 seconds, but missed breaking his own Asian Under-20 record of 18:47.37 seconds. Tushar Panwar, the other Indian in the competition, finished sixth with a time of 20:55.41 seconds.
Amanat Kamboj increased her gold medal tally to three in the discus throw. Her best throw of 52.24 meters earned her the gold medal in the women’s discus throw. Rahul Jakhar won the fourth gold medal of the day in the men’s decathlon with a score of 7185. His teammate Upkar took the silver with a score of 6854.
Sadhna Ravi won the silver medal in the women’s triple jump with a jump of 12.84 meters. Neeru Pathak added a bronze medal to India’s tally by finishing third in the women’s 400 meters. She clocked 53.93 seconds, the second-best time. India’s Tahura Khatun finished fourth with a personal best of 53.93 seconds.
India’s Royshan P finished eighth in the men’s triple jump with a distance of 14.87 meters. Manasi Avinash Yadav finished fourth in the women’s 3000 meters steeplechase with a time of 10:45.34 seconds.
Earlier, on the opening day, young Indian woman sprinter Nipam made a memorable start by winning a bronze medal in the 100m at the Under-20 Asian Athletics Championships on Thursday.
Nipam, the 18-year-old national record holder in the under-20 women’s 100m, started slowly but picked up speed, regaining her lead and clocking 11.62 seconds to win the bronze medal. The Uttar Pradesh runner has a personal best (which is also the under-20 national record) of 11.53 seconds, which she set at a domestic meet in April. “I am extremely happy to win the bronze medal for the team,” Nipam said enthusiastically.
