Indian Athletics – News – Satish walked his way to national record / Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Lucknow, 28 October 2012 – When Satish Kumar Patel finished fifth in last year’s Junior Nationals at Ranchi no one noticed him curiously.  But on Sunday morning Satish proved his mettle in front of his home crowd as he assaulted Vijay Gehlot’s 12-year-old national junior record in 10000m walk.  His winning effort was a noteworthy 41:29.85.  Three other athletes who finished behind Satish also bettered his U.P. senior Gehlot’s old record of 42:58.0. 

 Haryana’s National Inter-Zonal champion Neeraj finished second in 41:54.56.  Kapil Kumar from Maharashtra and Vinod S. Hugar of Karnataka, the silver and bronze medallists at Ranchi, have finished in sixth and eighth places respectively this morning.     

 However Haryana had some pleasant time on the field as their under-16 javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra made a giant improvement to the national best in his age-group with a throw recorded to 68,46m.  Teammate Mandeep Kumar (66.24m) made it 1-2 for Haryana.  U.P. lad Dharmender Kumar Patel held the previous mark of 62.14m since 2007. 

 In the youth boys’ 10,000m walk defending champion Kuldeep successfully retained his title but clocked only 44:06.28, slower than his meet and national record of 42:58.1 which he timed at Ranchi.  In the same age-group Maharashtrian Mandeep Goyat had similar feat as he improved the meet record for 800m run as he pips Delhi boy Lalit Mathur on the post 1:53:02 to 1:53:03.

 Other successful title defender was Kerala girl R. Anu in 400m hurdles. Her state-mate Jessy Joseph took the youth girls 800m race but missed Tintu Luka’s meet mark by a whisker.     

 Team Kerala led the points table at the end of second day with 186 points, closely followed by defending champions Haryana in 177 points.

/ Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Indian Athletics – News