Jharkhand girl sets up new record
LUCKNOW : Young long jumper Priyanka Kerketta had a disappointed 10th place finish at the Junior Asian Championship last year, but this time she thought something different and did it in style before her own crowd.
A national record in the long jump event at the Fed Cup Junior National Athletics Championship here on Saturday, at the 35th Battalion, PAC stadium not only allowed the Jharkhand girl to hope for a ticket to July’s World Championship scheduled to be held at Tampere in Finland, but it boosted her confidence for winning a gold in the mega event.
“Even before the start, I was very much sure of winning a gold medal and that with a new record,” an elated Priyanka told HT soon after jumping to 6.30 metre, eclipsing the old record of 6.25 metre set up by Ruta Patkar of Mumbai in 2002. Deepanshi Singh (5.80m) of hosts Uttar Pradesh and Renu (5.79m) of Punjab finished second and third, respectively.
The 17-year-old daughter of a farmer in one of the villages close to Ranchi in Jharkhand, Priyanka broke the national record in her very attempt, jumping to 6.27 metre, before touching 6.23 metre in her second attempt. However, in the third attempt she achieved what she was aiming for on the first day of the three-day championship, which aims to pick Indian squad for the World Championship.
G Nithya of Telangana and Nuzarat of Haryana emerged fastest runners of the meet, winning 100m gold medals in the girls and boys sections, respectively. Nithya clocked 12.19 seconds, whereas Nuzarat completed the distance in 10.88 seconds.
Earlier, young Abhishek Pal fetched first gold to hosts Uttar Pradesh in the boys 5000m event, clocking 14:35.70 seconds, before local girl Kaviya Yadav (9:54.98 seconds) winning 3000m gold in style. Punjab’s Karanveer (17.80m) finished top in the boys shot put event, whereas Sanjana Choudhary of Rajasthan (45.93m) bagged gold in girls javelin throw event.
Dominative Manipur lad Manjeet Singh clocked 4:00.22 seconds to win boys 1500m gold, whereas Suravi Biswas (45.83m) won discus gold in girls category. UP’s top middle distance runner Nandini Gupta (4:42.51sec) walked away with gold in girls 1500m event.