Mubssina wins first Athletics gold for Lakshadweep

Ashakiran Barla of Jharkhand rewrote the meet record in the girls 800m race while Lakshadweep's Mubssina Mohammed won the long jump event with a last-gasp effort of 5.90m on the second day of the National Youth Athletics Championships on Sunday.

Mubssina, the 16-year-old from Kavaratti, won the first national level athletics gold for tiny Union Territory.

Tamil Nadu girls Divyashree (5.82m) and N Lakshanya (5.74m) clinched silver and bronze respectively to also qualify for the Asian Youth Championships, along with Mubssina, by breaching the qualifying mark of 5.73m.

The girls' 400m podium finishers, Isha Rajesh Jadhav (Maharashtra), Anushka Dattatreya Kumbhar (Maharashtra) and Roshani Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) were the first trio to make the grade for the Asian Youth Championships.

Ashakiran, a 15-year-old from Gumla, won the two-lapper comfortably, clocking 2:08.45 to shave 0.11 seconds off the mark set by Priscilla Daniel in 2019 and attain qualification for the Asian Youth Championships in Kuwait next month. Ashakiran has a personal best of 2:06.78 and made it to the 800 semifinals of the World U20 Championships in Cali last month.

P Abhiram (Kerala) won the boys 400m in 48.56 seconds to secure qualification for the continental event. Ashlin Alexander (Kerala) and Sakshi Champalal Chavan (Maharashtra) emerged the fastest boy and girl of the Championships, winning the 100m crowns in 10.87 seconds and 12.22 seconds respectively.

In the girls' race, Neole Anna Kornelio (Karnataka) was in the lead at the halfway mark but pulled a thigh muscle and limped to the finish.

The day drew to a close with the boys' discus throw trio of Atul (Haryana), KS Servan (Kerala) and Aryan Malik (Haryana) also meeting the Asian Youth Championships qualifying standard, set at 54.93m.