Records tumble on day-two of National Junior Athletics Championships

Bhubaneswar, Dec 8 (PTI) Several records tumbled on the second day of the 39th National Junior Athletics Championships here on Sunday.

Tamil Nadu’s international sprinter Abinaya Rajarajan made her 100m victory in the women’s U18 group more memorable by setting a meet record.

On her way to gold medal, Abinaya clocked 11.66 seconds to better the nine-year-old record of 11.89 seconds set by Rashmi Sheregar.

There was excitement in Odisha’s camp as local sprinter Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram clinched the men's U20 100m title.

Haryana’s World U20 bronze medalist in women’s 10,000m race walk, Aarti, continued her domination at the domestic meet as she led from start to finish.

She clocked 47:21.68 seconds to better the previous meet record of 47:30.94 set by Mansi Negi in 2022.

Aarti’s next goal will be to compete in women’s 20km race walk at the All India Inter Varsity meet in the last week of December.

"It will be Aarti’s first competition over a longer distance,” Aarti’s coach Basant Bahadur Rana said.

Rana, a former international and army’s athletics coach, has a group of promising youngsters under his wings.

Haryana’s international high jumper, Pooja, also improved her own meet record in the women’s U18 event. PTI APA TAP