Madhya Pradesh’s Arjun Waskale (men’s 1500m) and Uttar Pradesh’s Priyanka Sirakwar (women’s 100m) found the vein of form in the 20th National Federation Cup Junior U20 Athletics Championships here today to earn qualification for the World Athletics U20 Championships to be held in Cali, Colombia.
The 18-year-old Priyanka Sirakwar, who hails from Agra district, qualified for the World U20 meet when she clocked 11.80 seconds in the women’s 100m in the opening heats. The qualifying mark is set at 11.90 seconds. Aman Khokhar (Uttar Pradesh) was the fastest qualifier from the 100m heats, clocking 10.62 seconds, 0.02 seconds adrift of the qualifying mark.
The 18-year-old Arjun Waskale had double joy as he not only met the qualification criteria, but also broke Sunil Dawar’s meet record by clocking a personal best time of 3:46.31 in the men’s 1500m.
Hailing from Panchkula in Haryana, Gagan Singh made his U20 debut at the National-level a winning one, claiming the 5000m title in 14:44.92, a shade slower than the time he clocked in the Haryana State U20 meet. But the U18 3000m champion in Guwahati last year showed fine racing skills by stepping up the pace on the final lap to win with a measure of comfort.
Drashtiben Chaudhri (Gujarat) produced a fine burst over the final lap in the women’s 5000m to leave Supriti Kachap in her wake.
The results:
Men
1500m: 1. Arjun Waskale (Madhya Pradesh) 3:46.31 (New Meet Record. Old: 3:48.54, Sunil Dawar, Bhopal, 2021); 2. J Rijoy (Kerala) 3:52.29; 3. Vikesh Dagur (Uttar Pradesh) 3:52.57.
5000m: 1. Gagan Singh (Haryana) 14:44.92; 2. Shivaji Parashuram Madappagoudra (Karnataka) 14:47.38; 3. Pawan Kumar (Delhi) 14:48.89.
Pole Vault: 1. R Sakthi (Tamil Nadu) 4.60m; 2. Dev Meena (Madhya Pradesh) 4.60; 3. Tanuj Kumar (Haryana) and R Yugendran (Tamil Nadu) 4.50.
Discus Throw: 1. Shubhkarman Ghotra (Punjab) 53.00m; 2. Sumit Kumar (Rajasthan) 52.58; 3. Akshay Sheoran (Rajasthan) 48.47.
Women
1500m: 1. Akansha (Rajasthan) 4:33.99; 2. Laxita Sandilea (Gujarat) 4:34.32; 3. Ruhi Bohra (Delhi) 4:35.31.
5000m: 1. Drashtiben Chaudhri (Gujarat) 16:53.33; 2. Supriti Kachap (Jharkhand) 16:57.01; 3. Jyoti (Haryana) 17:39.13.
Shot Put: 1. Jasmine Kaur (Punjab) 13.90m; 2. Vidhi (Uttar Pradesh) 13.11; 3. Jyoti Vaishnav (Rajasthan) 12.93.
