Punjab teenager Amanat Kamboj improves decade-old U-18 meet record in women's discus throw

Bhubaneswar, Dec 7 (PTI) Punjab's Asian U-20 silver-medallist Amanat Kamboj hogged the limelight by erasing more than a decade old meet record in the women's U-18 discus throw event on the opening day of the 39th National Junior Athletics Championships here on Saturday.

On her way to winning gold in the women's U-18 discus throw event, the 17-year-old recorded 52.89m to improve the previous meet record of 49.54m set by Navjeet Dhillon in 2012.

Amanat has made good strides in the last one year. Holder of U-16 national record (43.36m) in 2023, she went on to throw 50.45m to win silver earlier this year in Dubai during Asian U-20 Athletics Championships.

Amanat's opening throw of 52.89m fetched her gold medal with a new meet record. Her second attempt was no throw and the third recorded 49.25m. Her last three throws were no marks.

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 U-20 10,000m race saw top six athletes crossing the finish line below 30 minutes. It was Madhya Pradesh's Vinod Singh who won the gold medal with a timing of 29:43.39 seconds.

More than 2000 athletes in various age groups are taking part in the four-day competition. PTI PDS PDS SSC SSC