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On the first day of the 39th National Junior Athletics Championships, which began at the Kalinga Stadium on Saturday, Punjab's Asian U20 silver medallist Amanat Kamboj stole the show by shattering a record that had stood for more than ten years in the women's U18 discus throw competition. The 17-year-old from Punjab broke the previous meet mark of 49.54 meters set by Navjeet Dhillon in 2012 with a throw of 52.89 meters on her route to earning gold in the women's U18 discus throw.
Amanat has made good strides in the last one year. Winner of the U16 national record (43.36m) in 2023 she went on to record a throw of 50.45m to win silver earlier this year in Dubai during Asian U20 Athletics Championships. Amanat’s opening throw of 52.89m fetched her gold medal with a new meet record as her second attempt was no throw and her third throw was 49.25m. While her last three throws were no mark.
Away from the field event, there was ample excitement in the middle-distance races in the evening session. Winners of both men and women’s 1500m races had to sprint home to clinch gold medals. Earlier in the morning session the men’s U20 10,000 race saw top six athletes crossing the finish line below 30 minutes. While the top four were closely bunched together in the last 50m. The day, however, belonged to Madhya Pradesh’s Vinod Singh who won the gold medal at 29:43.39 seconds.
Meanwhile, winners of the U14 boys triathlon improved the previous meet record of 2150. The junior national competition is generally considered a good platform to scout potential athletes, N Ramesh, chief junior athletics coach said. “Outstanding athletes in the past have been drafted into National Center of Excellence (NCOE) under the aegis of Sports Authority of India (SAI) from time to time,” the chief junior athletics coach added. More than 2000 athletes in various age groups are competing in four-day competition.
Results:
Men
U20: 10,000m: Vinod Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 29:43.39 seconds, Gaurav Bhosale (Maharashtra) 29:43.46, Arun (Haryana) 29:43.48.
U14 boys: Triathlon: Imran Alam (Bihar) 2275 points, Heera Kumar Nagesh (Telangana) 2194 points, Jaydip Joliya (Haryana) 2194 points.
Women
U20: 5,000m: Prachi Devkar (Maharashtra) 17:22.79 seconds, Sonam Parmar (Madhya Pradesh) 17:25.70, Neeta Rani (Uttar Pradesh) 17:27.47.
U20: 1500m: Vineeta Gurjar (Uttar Pradesh) 4:29.26 seconds, Chanchal J (Haryana) 4:29.36, Manu Choudhari (Rajasthan) 4:29.37.
U18: Discus throw: Amanat Kamboj (Punjab) 52.89m (meet record, previous meet record Navjeet Dhillon49.54m in 2012), Riddhi (Haryana) 48.80m, Supriya Attri (Uttar Pradesh) 46.57m.
U14 girls: Devika (Rajasthan) 2519 points (new meet record, previous 2482 points), Lavishka Ujjwal (Gujarat) 2440 points, Pruthvi Byakod (Karnataka) 2395 points.
