Bengaluru :
Bengal’s Lili Das claimed the women’s 1500m gold medal with a new junior national record of 4 minutes, 20.31 seconds on the opening day of the Federation Cup National Junior Athletics Championships here on Tuesday. Das’ feat helped her qualify for the World Junior Athletics Championships.
Das set the track ablaze, shaving nearly seven seconds off the earlier record created by Haryana’s Pinki Kumari in 2014. Such was her dominance that the 17-year-old Das almost lapped one of her rivals.
“It is a fantastic performance by Lili as she managed a record in this city which is situated at an altitude of 920m,” her coach Kalyan Chaudhary told reporters.
For the daughter of jute farmers hailing from Triveni in Hooghly district, Tuesday’s show was a personal best. “Her mom always used to wonder about her career. But now she would be happy as her daughter will get her share of the limelight and more importantly a job,” Chaudhary said.
The qualification mark for the world meet to be held in Bydgoszcz, Poland from July 19-24 is 4 minutes, 28.20 seconds. Harmilan Kaur of Punjab, who won silver, also booked her ticket with a time of 4:28.05s.
Priyanka wins gold
Another impressive performer from rural India was Priyanka Kerketa of Jharkhand who took the gold in women’s long jump with a leap of 5.99m, which came in her fourth attempt.
There was no coach at hand to help the Ranchi girl and she was guided by teammate Ramdev Tigga after each jump. “I wanted to do a 6.20,” said Priyanka who is from Tanghar Baishali village near Ranchi. Soma Karmakar of Bengal took the silver with 5.76 and Aishwarya B of Karnataka took the bronze with an effort of 5.60m.
In women’s 5000m race, Heena of Himachal Pradesh was disqualified after being found overage and second- placed Jothi of Tamil Nadu was awarded the gold.
Results:
Junior Men:
100m: 1. Ch Sudhakar (Tel, 10.74s), 2. Chirag (Har, 10.81), 3. Joseph Joe M (Ker, 10.82)
1500m: 1. Manjeet Singh (Man, 3:57,45), 2. Dinesh Lathwal (Har, 3:57.88), 3. Yogesh (Mah, 3:58.95)
5000m: 1. Gavit Murali (Guj, 14:44.90s), 2. Kisan Tadvi (Mah, 14:46.16), 3. Abhishek Pal (Asm, 14:47.84)
Shot Put: 1. Ashish Bhalothi (Har, 17.41m), 2. Ram Chandra (UP, 16.44), 3. Udit Kumar (UP, 16.30)
Junior Women:
100m: 1. Siddhi Hiray (Mah, 12.19), 2. Rajashree P (Ben, 12.40), 3. Sweta H (Mah, 12.48)
1500m: 1. Lili Das (Ben, 4:20:31 NR, Old: Pinki Kumari, Har, 4:27.26s, 2014), 2. Harmilan Kaur (Pun, 4:28.05), 3. Durga (Mah, 4:38.12)
5000m: 1. Jothi (TN, 17:53.62), 2. Sudha Pal (UP, 17:59.78), 3. Kavita Yadav (UP, 18:26.91);
Javelin throw: 1. Pushpa Jakhar (Har, 47.73m), 2. Runjun Pegu (Asm, 42.22), 3. Priyanka (Har, 41.47).
Long Jump: 1. Priyanka Kerketa (Jha, 5.99m), 2. Soma Karmakar (Ben, 5.76), 3. Aishwarya B (Kar, 5.60).
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> Sports> More Sports / by Biju Babu Cyriac / TNN / May 04th, 2016