Indian Athletics – News – 2nd South Asian Junior Athletics Championships – Double for Chitra and Archana, Sri Lankans put up a commendable display – / Ram Murali Krishnan /

Ranchi, India – 12 November 2013 The day belongs to Sri Lanka as they garnered the top spot in 8 out of 16 events decided on the second and final day of 2^nd South Asian Junior Athletics championships which concluded with a grandeur closing ceremony in the magnificent Birsa Munda Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

 

 

 

Supun Viraj Randeniya delivered the best performance of the day while winning the junior men’s 110m hurdles clocking 13.64 secs that bettered the previous meet mark (14.62s) held by T. Balamurugan of India by almost 1 second as well as his personal best of 14.04 secs clocked at Colombo this September. 

His winning margin was so huge that teammate Malin Udaya Kumara claimed the silver in a distance 14.41s ahead of host nation’s Tarundeep Singh who went away with the bronze medal in 14.51 secs.

 

As expected Indian sprinter Archana Suseentran and distance runner P.U. Chitra completes a double by pocketing the gold in 200m (24.32 secs) and 3000m (9:51.13) events respectively.

 

In that process Archana, the Anna University student from Chennai, bettered the previous mark with an absolute 1 second improvement.

There were five other meet marks on the last of day of competitions.  Pazhanivel Anburaja, who showed initial hiccups in long jump, went on to win the title with a notable 7.41m leap on his fourth round.  Half-miler Jessy Joseph, a prodigy of lndian athletics legend P.T. Usha, clocked an impressive 2:08.38.  Earlier on the same tracks Jessy registered her personal best 2:06.82 during the national open championships.  Meghana Shetty in 100m hurdles (14.54s) and Sachin Kumar in discus throw (54.44m) have been the other Indians entered the record-books.  Lankan sprinter Himasha Eashan posted a meet mark in 200m as he clocked 21.44 secs to push the Indian Husandeep Singht to second place in 21.63 secs.  Husandeep, who earlier collected a silver 100m yesterday, was satisfied with his second medal this evening.

 

 

Sri Lankan athletes made a clean sweep of medals in all the four relay races held in the evening.  They had easy wins in all but a stiff competition in the junior men’s 4 x 400m in which India’s Sandeep Lathwal and Sri Lankan Harsha Chathuranga Pieris locked in to a battle till the wire.  However Harsha ward-off the challenge and finished two-tenths of a second ahead of the Indian to claim the gold for his nation.

The hosts improved their medal tally from the first edition as they secured a stupendous 20 gold, an equal number of silver, besides a dozen bronze medals (total 52).  However it was 1 gold lesser from the inaugural edition held at Colombo in 2007.  On the other hand the island nation improved their previous performance with 10 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals (total 34). Six of their ten gold medals have come from their female athletes.  Bangladesh with 3 bronze medal and Pakistan with a lone bronze medal finished third and fourth in the medal table while other participating nations – Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal – could not secure any medal this time.

The Sri Lankan capital Colombo was chosen to organise the next edition of the SAF junior athletics championships 2015.

 

/ Ram Murali Krishnan / 

    

Indian sprinters Augustine, Archana emerged fastest athletes

                                           Ranchi, India – 11 November 2013

As expected the Indian national anthem was played repeatedly at Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium as the athletes from  host nation won 12 out of 14 finals decided on the first day of competitions in the Jharkhand state capital.

However Sri Lanka’s little wonder Siwanthi Kumari Rathnayake snatched the first gold of the meet as the reigning    Asian Junior champion justified her billing with a brilliant run to capture the junior women’s 400m in 56.87 secs.  Teammate Nirmali Madushika (57.01s) and Indian quarter-miler Shaharbana Sidhique (57.15s) were second and third respectively.

The island nation also won a second gold through triple jumper Vidusha Lakshani with a leap of 12.68m.  India’s Rochelle Maria Macfarlane, the silver medallist at both Asian Youth Games and Asian Schools Athletics championships, could manage only 12.49m this evening ahead compatriot Jenimol Joy who finished third in 12.30m.  Lakshani, a bronze medallist in the Asian schools meet behind Rochelle, praised the petit Rochelle who was one place above her on the victory podium in Kuantan.  “I was lucky to win here as Rochelle could not repeat her effort from Malaysia” Vidusha revealed after the event.  The triple jump for junior women was introduced for the first time in the championships at Ranchi.

The athletics fans from Ranchi, who assembled in large number, cheered the Indian athletes throughout the session.  Archana Suseentran and Augustine Yesudas, the sprint-stars who hails from down south, responded well with their splendid run.  Archana clocked a personal best 12.06 secs to erase Jessy Arulappan’s meet mark of 12.10s and won the gold for junior women.  Augustine, who posted a national junior mark of 10.57 secs in the National Inter-Zone championships at Kochi, had some in the qualifying heats earlier as he along with couple of other athletes ran the full distance as they could not hear the foul-start warning.  He ran a slow re-race in caution to finish second in his heats with a moderate 11 secs.  However in the finals he was back in action with his usual uncompromised style and went on to post a new meet mark in 10.61 secs.  Teammate Husandeep Singh and Sri Lankan Himasha Eashan returned identical 10.64 secs in the next two spots.  All the three podium finishers bettered the previous mark of 10.69 secs held by ace Sri Lankan sprinter Shehan Ambepitiya.

Indian athletes eclipsed six other meet records too.  Flag-bearer Shakti Solanki maintained his winning streak with a remarkable 17.89m toss in the shot put.  Spearman Parvinder Kumar hurled the javelin to a new distance of 67.63m.  There was an interesting dual in the high jump arena between Sreenith Mohan (India) and Thilina Karunaratne (Sri Lanka).  The Lankan, credited with a personal best of 2.16m, locked in to a battle with Sreenith all the way but had a failure in the height of 2.06m.  Both the jumpers fail to clear further heights and hence the Indian declared as the winner while the two shared the record-height of 2.06m.  Javelin thrower C.K. Prajitha was the first to set a record in the after-noon with a throw of 41.69m.

On the track the tiny tot P.U. Chitra, who won a distance double in the recently concluded Asian Schools Athletics Championships at Kuantan (Malaysia), ran a well calculated race and registered a new time of 4:32.13.  In the final event of the day, junior men’s 400m, Sandeep Lathwal emerged winner (48.24 secs) by piping country-mate A. Dharun (48.44s) and Lankan Harsha Chathuranga (48.53s) as the trio removed the previous record from the books.

Click here for the first day’s results—

/ Ram Murali Krishnan /

Pomp and pageantry marked the inauguration of three day 2^nd South Asian Junior Athletics Championships in the picturesque state-of-the-art Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium here on Sunday.

The evening’s programme commenced with the March Past of the participating teams from the South Asian region.

Hon’ble Governor of Jharkhand, Dr. Syed Ahmed, declared the meet open.  Hon’ble Minster for Rural Development, Government of India, Shri. Jairam Ramesh and Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shri. Hemant Soren, were among the dignitaries present during the inauguration.

The hosts Jharkhand State’s Sports Minister Ms. Geetashree Oraon welcomed the gathering while the star athlete from the state, Budhwa Oraon, lit the sacred flame.

Shakti Solanki, gold medallist in the inaugural Asian Schools Track and Field meet at Kuantan, Malaysia, was the flag-bearer of the Indian Team comprises of 32 junior men and 25 junior women.

A variety of dance programme depicting the cultural heritage of Jharkhand have been performed followed by a blend of modern day music and dances composed on the backdrop of national integrity and harmony.

India is the defending champion of the above championships with 21 gold, 19 silver and 5 bronze medals they garnered in 2007 at Colombo.  The hosts are expected to deliver better performances in the next two days of action.

Apart from Shakti Solanki, there are four other champions and three silver medallists from the Asian Schools championships also in the Indian team. Notable among them are metric milers Mohammed Afsal and P.U. Chitra, high jumper Swapna Burman and shot putter Meghna Devanga.

Sri Lanka, which is fielding a 40-strong team in Ranchi, is mainly pinned their hopes on their flag-bearer Supun Viraj Randeniya, who won a bronze medal in 110m hurdles during the Asian Junior championships when it was conducted in their nation capital Colombo last year.  Further the challenge from their junior women’s side will come from Asian Junior Champion Siwanthi Kumari Rathnayake, a 400m runner, who surprised everyone with the Gold medal last year besides a silver in the Commonwealth Youth Games at Douglas, a year before.

A few surprises from other participating nations are also in store for the sport-loving Jharkhand fans who are eager to witness the fireworks in the next two days.

The first day’s competition will commence on Monday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. with junior women’s javelin throw and events are planned up to 5:30 p.m.