HYDERABAD, OCT 15 : Records fall like nine-pins in the two-day 26th South Zone Junior Athletics championships which concluded at GMC Balayogi Athletics Stadium in Gachibowli here on Tuesday. As many as 17 out of 23 new records created in the championships came on Tuesday.
Kerala’s SAF junior champion Sreenith Mohan sailed over 2.15m to eclipse the meet mark in junior men’s high jump. Sreenith then went on to make three unsuccessful attempts to break the national junior record at 2.18m.
Tamil Nadu’s Asian Youth Games silver medalist Rochelle Maria made it a double by adding the triple jump gold to her long jump victory earlier. Her teammate S Srinithi made a huge improvement to her own meet mark in youth girls’ hammer throw by sending the ball and chain to a new distance of 51.36m. Her last year’s record stood at 45.50m.
TN athletes accounted four more records through R Naveen (22.07 secs in boys u-16), T Santhosh Kumar (53.0 secs in youth boys 400m hurdles), N Hemamalini (38.05m in javelin throw girls u-16) and Tamil Nadu team in boys under-16 medley relay (1:59.1). For Naveen it was a record-double as he clocked a fantastic 48.6 secs in 400m yesterday. This apart, Tamil Nadu decathlete G S Sreedhu tabulated 6088 points to win the youth boys’ decathlon event introduced for the first time this year.
Kerala girl Jisna Mathew posted a new meet time of 25 secs to win the 200m in under-16 division before anchoring the state team to victory in medley relay (2:15.5). Pole vaulter Mariya Jaison, a silver medalist in last year’s Asian Schools Athletics Championships at Kuantan (Malaysia), scaled a new height of 3.20m in youth girls category. Other record-holders from the day include M Joseph Jose in youth boys 200m (21.90s), P P Muhammed Hafseer in junior men’s decathlon (6618 pts), P V Navya in youth girls 2000m steeplechase (7:58.4) and junior men’s 4x400m relay quartet (3:16.8).
Throwers from Karnataka excelled in youth boys’ hammer throw (Gaviswamy, 61.20m), youth girls’ shot put (G K Namitha, 14.02m) and junior women’s shot put (P S Uma, 13.08m).
Tamil Nadu state team successfully defended the overall title with 873 points. As in last year the Team Kerala finished runners-up with 753 points. Karnataka (417), Telangana (276), Andhra Pradesh (213) and Puducherry (19) followed in that order.
However Kerala athletes were on top of the medal tally with 31 gold, 22 silver and 6 bronze medals. Tamil Nadu (28-33-28) and hosts Telangana (8-10-6) were second and third positions respectively ahead of Karnataka (7-9-28) and Andhra Pradesh (4-4-9).
The following teams have been declared winners in their respective age-groups:
BOYS:
Under-14: Andhra Pradesh 39 pts
Under-16: Tamil Nadu 112 pts
Under-18: Tamil Nadu 145 pts
Under-20: Kerala 152 pts
GIRLs:
Under-14: Tamil Nadu 44 pts
Under-16: Tamil Nadu 116 pts
Under-18: Kerala 172 pts
Under-20: Kerala 146 pts.