UP athletes shine, win 3 gold, 1 silver
On a day when Tamil Nadu’s Jeswin Aldrin came with a stunning wind-aided leap of 8.37m to beat Olympian S Sreeshankar in a fierce but friendly battle to grab the attention on the second day of the 25th AFI National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships, Uttar Pradesh athletes too made their presence felt quite strongly with three gold and a silver medals, at the CH Muhammed Koya Stadium in Calicut on Sunday.
Ajay Kumar Saroj, Rohit Yadav and Sourabh Rathi won gold medals, whereas Akash Kumar finished with a silver medal in different events. The day witnessed as many nine jumps over 8m, Aldrin produced a fine series that saw all five of his valid efforts past that mark while each of Sreeshankar sailed over that distance on each of his three valid tries, including an 8.36m that helped him improve his own national record by 10cm and a place among the 10 best Asians ever in Long Jump.
Spirited Saroj clocked 3:42.36 sec to emerge fastest in the 1500m, pushing Delhi’s Rahul and Kerala’s Jinson Johnson to the second and third spots, respectively.
Varanasi’s Rohit Yadav kept his date with gold in javelin event, hurling the iron rod to distance of 81.83 metre. Karnataka’s P Manu (79.17) and Haryana’s Sahil Silwal (73.35) stood second and third, respectively.
Rathi, 21, marked his debut in the senior ranks with decathlon gold. With a determined effort in the 1500m, the final of the 10 events, he leapfrogged past the leaders Boota Singh and Mohit. Boota Singh looked set to add a fourth national-level crown but
SPIRITED SAROJ CLOCKED 3:42.36 SEC TO EMERGE FASTEST IN THE 1500M, PUSHING DELHI’S RAHUL AND KERALA’S JINSON JOHNSON TO THE SECOND AND THIRD SPOTS, RESPECTIVELY
was a slow 1500m meant he finished 24 points behind Sourabh Rathi.
Akash finished the day for UP with a silver medal in the 400m. He clocked 46.57.3 seconds just behind Tamil Nadu’s Rajesh Ramesh, who clocked 46.45 seconds to win gold. Kerala’s Noah Nirmal Tom (46.81) won a bronze medal.