Thiruvannamalai (Tamil Nadu): Laxita Vinod Sandilea of Gujarat ran a personal best to win the 1500 metre race on the opening evening the AFI National Junior U20 Athletics Championships here on Friday.
Delhi’s Ruhi Bohra used the Gujarat girl’s pace to lower her personal best and join her as qualifiers for the Asian U20 Championships in Yecheon, South Korea in June.
Laxita’s previous best was 4:27.38s recorded when she won silver medal in the Gymnasiade in Caen, France, on May 20 last year.
The Business Administation student had clocked 4:45.71s in winning the bronze medal in the Khelo India Youth Games in Bhopal on February 3.
Antima Pal of Uttar Pradesh ran her maiden sub-17 minute 5000m race to book her place in the Indian squad. She improved her previous best timing from 17:07.25s to 16:47.59s.
Madhya Pradesh’s Bushra Khan ensured that the decision to move up from 1500m to 5000m paid her dividends as she also secured the qualifying standard.
Siddharth Choudhary won the men’s shot put (6kg) with a personal best of 19.11m, improving on the 17.04m mark he had obtained in the U20 Federation Cup in Nadiad in June last year. He got the qualification for the Asian Championships with his first attempt over 18.21m, but endured two fouls and a long wait before registering his best effort on the final try.
Jaidev Dikka of Delhi nailed his qualification with his last try, going past the qualifying standard of 18.10m with an effort of 18.20m.
Sujit Tikode (Maharashtra), Shivaji Parashu Madappagoudra (Karnataka) and Naresh Chopra (Rajasthan) claimed podium places in the men’s 5000m while Sagar (Haryana) became the fourth runner to come home inside the qualifying standard of 14:45.00s to kickstart the busy opening day’s proceedings which saw 10 athletes attain the qualifying marks.
PTI

Press Trust of India