Consistent Reshma Patel lowers second National mark in a fortnight

Uttarakhand's 16-year-old Reshma Patel rewrote a National Record for the second time in a fortnight when she won the girls (under-18) 5000m event in the 36th National Junior Athletics Championship in the Sarusajai Stadium here on Sunday.

She clocked 23 minutes 38.57 seconds to lower KT Neena's under-18 record of 24:11.70 set in Bambolim, Goa, in 2014.

Reshma claimed the National U20 Record when she made her debut in the 10000m Race Walk in the Federation Cup Junior U20 Athletics Championships in Bhopal on January 26. The Dehradun girl enjoyed competition from Rupali (Uttar Pradesh) and Deepika Sharma (Rajasthan) but did well to post a comfortable win.

Late in the evening, it was interesting that the under-18 quartermilers produced better times than the under-20 runners in both the men and women's finals. Tamil Nadu's S Barath and Haryana's Kapil both clocked sub-48 times in the boys under-18 final while Priya Habbathanahally Mohan (Karnataka) and Summy (Haryana) dipped in under 56 seconds in the girls under-18 final.

Delhi sprinters Ritik Malik and Taranjeet Kaur won the under-20 men and women 100m races while the title of the fastest Under-18 athletes was captured by Anshul (Delhi) and Avantika Santosh Narale (Maharashtra), who beat her rival Jeevanji Deepthi (Telangana). Dheeraj Kumar Pahadi (Jharkhand) won the boys under-16 100m crown.

Sya Mahendra Sawant (Maharashtra) won the close contest in the girls' under-16 category, edging out her State-mate Siya Abhijit Sawant and Soumita Paul (West Bengal) by one-hundredth of a second.

On Saturday, India's top junior javelin thrower Rohit Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) was presented a stiff challenge by Haryana's Yashvir Singh. Having trained in the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneshwar, for a couple of months, Rohit Yadav knew that he would have to be close to his best, if not his best, to win the competition.

It was clear that the two were dishing out a treat to those following the event. Rohit Yadav's throw sailed 6cm farther than that of Yashvir Singh, who is fresh off a victory in the Federation Cup Junior U20 Championship in Bhopal. Having had a best effort of 78.68m last month, Yashir unleashed a 77.15m throw but Rohit Yadav produced two throws of 77.21 and 77.86.

( With inputs from ANI )