Athletics
National Junior Athletics C'ships: Abhinaya, Dondapti clinch gold medals
Abhinaya Rajarajan clinched the U18 girls 100m gold and Mruty Dondapati won the U20 men's 100m with a new personal best.
Abhinaya Rajarajan and Mruty Dondapti in action at the 2024 National Junior Athletics Championships. (File Photo)
Young Indian athletes demonstrated impressive performances at the National Junior Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha on Sunday as they set new meet and national records.
The young sprinter, Abhinaya Rajarajan, who levelled Dutee Chand's U18 women's 100m national record in heats, clinched the gold medal with another impressive timing of 11.66s in the final.
Meanwhile, Mruty Dondapti of Odisha clinched the gold medal in the men's U20 100m final with a personal best timing of 10.50s to edge out the second-placed Laukik Melge of Maharashtra (10.52s).
The 17-year-old high jumper Pooja continued to deliver impressive performances on the circuit by winning the gold medal in the U18 category with a new meet record of 1.82m.
She is also the national record holder in the category, having set up the best jump record of 1.83m at the U20 World Championships in Peru earlier this year.
The day started on a high note when U20 World medalist Aarti of Haryana clinched the gold medal in the women's 10,000m racewalk event in a dominating fashion, clocking a timing of 47:21.68
On the other hand, Manoj Kumar of Tamil Nadu clinched the gold medal in the men's U20 Decathlon with total points of 6837, leaving behind his competitor Vethapriyan, by a good margin of 859 points.
