Karnataka’s Rezoana Mallick Heena claimed her second straight 400m gold, winning the AFI National Youth (U18) Athletics Championships crown in 53.44 seconds at the Mahatma Gandhi Stadium in Ajjarakadu near here, today. She had blazed to victory in 53.22 seconds in the U16 final in the National 400m Meet in Thiruvananthapuram last week.
She not only broke the meet record, set at 53.88 seconds by Kerala’s Jisna Mathew in Kozhikode in 2017, but also led the top five finishers past the qualifying standard for the Asian Youth Athletics Championships. To be clocking a sub-54-second time in successive finals is creditable for the girl who will celebrate her 16th birthday on March 20.
Delhi’s Navpreet Singh who clocked 47.58 seconds in the 400m, Uttarakhand’’s Priyanshu who won the 1500m in 3:54.20 and Maharashtra’s Sandip Vinod Gond who claimed the 110m Hurdles crown in 13.86 seconds were the three boys who rewrote meet records on the second day of the three-day championships.
Navpreet Singh powered three others in the 400m past the Asian Youth Championship qualifying mark while Priyanshu led a bunch of seven metric milers home inside the qualifying standard while
Sandip Vinod Gond was the sole hurdler to attain a time inside the magical mark for the 110m Hurdles.
Besides Rezoana Mallick Heena and four other 400m sprinters, Nancy and Abinaya Rajarajan (100m), Akhila Avuta and two others (1500m), Pooja (High Jump) and all 11 finishers in the 5000m Race Walk breached the qualifying standards for the Asian Youth Athletics Championships to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from April 20 to 23 this year.
The results (finals):
Boys U18
100m: 1. Mohammed Reyan Basha (Odisha) 10.96 seconds; 2. Sangineni Harsha Vardhan (Telangana) 11.03; 3. Om Rajendra Itkelwar (Maharashtra) 11.05.
400m: 1. Navpreet Singh (Delhi) 47.58 seconds (New Meet Record. Old: 47.65, Sandeep, Ranchi, 2011); 2. M Sharan (Tamil Nadu) 48.23; 3. Shivam (Uttar Pradesh) 48.42.
1500m: 1. Priyanshu (Uttarakhand) 3:54.20 (New Meet Record. Old: 3:57.21, Harendra Kumar, Raipur, 2019); 2. Rahul Sarnaliya (Uttarakhand) 3:54.87; 3. Sumit (Haryana) 3:57.72.
110m Hurdles: 1. Sandip Vinod Gond (Maharashtra) 13.86 seconds (New Meet Record. Old: 13.90, Abhishek Ubhe, Hyderabad, 2017); 2. K Kiran (Kerala) 14.22; 3. Nitish Kullu (Odisha) 14.23.
Pole Vaut: 1. Aman Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 4.30m; 2. Sivadev Rajeev (Kerala) 4.20; 3. Satyam Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 4.10.
Long Jump: 1. Mohammed Atta Sazid (Haryana) 6.92m; 2. Abhishek Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 6.77; 3. A Harish Adithya (Tamil Nadu) 6.75.
Shot Put: 1. Manjeet Kumar Rameshwar (Maharashtra) 17.25m; 2. Dinesh (Rajasthan) 17.13; 3. Sarthak Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 16.99.
Girls U18
100m: 1. Nancy (Haryana) 12.05 seconds; 2. Abinaya Rajarajaran (Tamil Nadu) 12.15; 3. Gauravi Ulhas Naik (Maharashtra) 12.46.
400m: 1. Rezoana Mallick Heena (West Bengal) 53.44 seconds (New Meet Record. Old: 53.88, Jisna Mathew, Kozhikode, 2016); 2. Isha Rajesh Jadhav (Maharashtra) 55.25; 3. Khushi Sadana Umesh (Maharashtra) 55.49.
1500m: 1. Akhila Avuta (Telangana) 4:45.31; 2. Sejalven Babubhai Kataria (Gujarat) 4:47.75; 3. Muskan (Rajasthan) 4:53.88.
100m Hurdles: 1. Aerrolla Pranathi (Telangana) 14.71 seconds; 2. G Bhavana (Tamil Nadu) 15.07; 3. Yamini Karthikeyan (Tamil Nadu) 15.35.
High Jump: 1. Pooja (Haryana) 1.76m; 2. Mohur Mukherjee (West Bengal) 1.63; 3. Gowthami (Karnataka) 1.60.
Triple Jump: 1. Paveena Rajesh (Tamil Nadu) 11.93m; 2. Priti Lakra (Jharkhand) 11.34; 3. Poonam (Rajasthan) 10.96.
5000m Race Walk: 1. Aarti (Haryana) 24:44.04.00; 2. Khusbhu Yadav (Rajasthan) 25:12.23; 3. Savitaben Lalabhai Chauhan (Gujarat) 25;35.12.
