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Pune, January 14: Balakumar Nithin (Tamil Nadu) and A.T. Daneshwari (Karnataka) won sprint doubles in the boys and girls Under-21 sections to provide the fans at the Khelo India Youth Games 2019 with the best memories of the athletics competition this week.
Kunwar Ajai Raj Singh Rana’s 75.40m effort with the javelin in the boys' Under-17 competition was the stand out showing in a field event.
Viewed from an intensity perspective, it was the Girls’ Under-21 high jump contest that held the attention of fans. S.B. Supriya and her Karnataka team-mate Abhinaya Shetty, as well as Haryana’s Rubina Yadav, were engaged in a bitter battle that will stay etched in the minds of those who watched it.
They cleared 1.79m, a personal best for the two Karnataka girls while Rubina had passed 1.81m in the National Junior Athletics Championships in Vijayawada on November 16, 2017. The bar presented an insurmountable challenge to the three girls. Kerala’s Gayathry Sivakumar, who has a personal best of 1.79m, was unable to secure a mark after clearing 1.71m.
There were double gold medals for middle and long-distance runners, National junior champions Ajeet Kumar Yadav (Gujarat) and Ankita Dhyani (Uttarakhand), too. The Gujarat runner showed a clean pair of heels to his rivals in the boys Under-21 1500m and 5000m while Ankita Dhyani took home the girls Under-17 1500m and 3000m gold medals.
Ankita’s twin gold were the only medals for Uttarakhand in the competition that saw as many as 15 States claim gold medals with Himachal Pradesh and Assam finding the precious metal through Ankesh Chaudhary (boys Under-21 800m) and Ambrika Nazary (girls Under-17 long jump).
However, it was the Maharashtra contingent that stamped their strong presence in track and field sport in KIYG2019, striking more gold and medals than any other team. The squad drew largely from the collective firepower of the middle and long-distance runners to climb the podium as the best performing athletics team in the celebration of youth sport.
Maharashtra’s individual gold medals came through Adesh Garsa (400m), Dinesh Singh (1500m) and Alden Noronha (110m hurdles) in the boys Under-21 section, Durga Deore (1500m) and Poonam Sonune (5000m) in the girls’ Under-21s, Saurabh Rawat (1500m) in boys Under-17 and Sudeshna Shivankar (100m) and Avantika Narale (200m) in the girls Under-17s.
Sharvari Parulekar (girls Under-17 triple jump) won Maharashtra’s only gold medal in a field event.
Tamil Nadu appeared to have come to the athletics stadium in the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex with a great deal of preparation. They finished just behind the home State. Nithin was the star, winning the boys Under-21 sprint double with some comfort. Kerala were a close third on the medals table.
