Prem Kumar’s 7.94m leap was highlight of opening day – / By Ram. Murali Krishnan /

Pune, 22 September 2012 – When Kumaravel Premkumar leapt to 7.94m, national junior record, on the sixth round of Junior Men’s long jump final at Shiv Chattrapathi Sports

Complex here he not only got the gold medal but also conquered the hearts of the entire audience who were fortunate to watch it during the opening day of 24th National Inter-Zone junior athletics championships.The Tamil Nadu athlete, raised in difficult economic background, was lucky enough to receive specialised training in the Chennai-based Prime Sports Academy under the watchful eyes of its founder and coach Mr. Nagaraj. Prem Kumar, the lone medallist in this year’s Asian Indoor championships,proved his performance of 7.92m achieved during the trials at Bangalore before the Hangzhou competition was not a mere fly on the pane.

Prem, who went on to add another bronze medal to his kitty from the Asian junior championships in Colombo, will be a medal prospect for the country at the senior level in the coming years.  His maiden senior title came from the National Open championships held at Chennai hardly a week ago. 

Apart from the above national mark, as much as seven meet records have been bettered on Saturday although many top athletes from Kerala and some northern Indian states have preferred to save their best for next month’s Junior Nationals at Lucknow.

Of the seven meet marks five eclipsed on the track while the remaining two are from the field.  The one lap race saw three records—Haryana’s Nirmala (55.68 secs) in youth girls, host state’s Anjana Dhavlu (56.37s) in u-16 girls division and Nishant Singh from Madhya Pradesh in boys’ u-16 section with a time of 49.94 secs.

Haryana lad Sachin had a big throw with discus in the youth boys group as he hurled the disc to a remarkable 56.62m.

Kerala u-14 girl Gayathry Siva accounted for another field mark by scaling 1.52m in high jump.

 / Ram. Murali Krishnan /