Namita Kabat on her way to Asian Youth Games 800m title in Singapore in 2009 (© c)
Warangal, IndiaThe athletes had to battle with inclement weather at the 25th Indian junior championships which concluded at Warangal on Saturday (21 Nov). The five-day meet held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on a conventional clay-soil track proved to be a nightmare for many of the 1553 athletes here from 24 states of India.
Luck eluded Govindaraj Gayathry who had won two silver medals in last year’s Commonwealth Youth Games at Pune in the 100m Hurdles and Triple Jump. After recording a 14.02 secs national youth mark in last year’s meet at Mysore, Gayathry clocked an impressive 13.84 at her Chennai base during last month’s Senior Nationals and was keenly looking forward to lowering it further at Warangal.
However, a malfunctioning photo-finish system shattered her dream in Warangal and she returned with a 13.6 manual timing. To add to her woe the only wind-gauge employed had been shifted to the trackside by the time she took part in Triple Jump leaping an Indian junior best of 13.36m. “She’ll have another year in junior division and many things to prove in the future” echoed Mr. Nagarajan, her coach at Prime Sports Academy.
Namita Kabat a tiny girl from Billa village in Orissa state had already made headlines when she took the 800m at the inaugural Asian Youth Games at Singapore, this year. Supported by her father she had received her formal education at the Government school in Bhubaneswar before joining the Tata Athletics Academy in Jamshedpur recently. At Warangal, Namita clocked a modest 2:17.87 to win the gold on a race which saw the second placed Anju of Haryana was just 0.05 secs behind for the silver.
Having run the 100m in an astonishing 11.6 secs at her state championships in Bangalore hardly two weeks ago, Sunderraj Nirupama who is trained by V.R. Beedu dealt well with the slow, waterlogged track. Nirupama went home with two golds, taking the 100m (12.20) and 200m (25.15) in the youth girls division. “My mother Manjula was an athlete and father Sunderraj played basketball” revealed Nirupama, a class-12 student of Ebenezer International School.
Kerala state took the team championship with 24 gold, 30 silver and 17 bronze medals, closely followed by Tamil Nadu (21-18-17) and Haryana (16-20-13).
Gayathry (Tamil Nadu) and Nirupama (Karnataka) were adjudged as “best athletes” in the junior women and youth categories, while Duttee Chand (Jharkhand) and Karen Mistry (Maharashtra) received the same for U-16 and U-14 girls respectively. Haryana shot putter Naresh and Tamil Nadu hurdler Ratheesh Kumar were declared best in junior men and youth boys divisions. The boys’ U-16 and U-14 honours went to Sikanderjit Singh (Punjab) and Janardana Rao (Andhra Pradesh).
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF
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