Chopra’s impact: 350 plus athletes appear in district championship
LUCKNOW: Neeraj Chopra’s golden success at the Tokyo Olympics seems to have a huge impact even on the District Athletics Championship here on Friday as over 350 young athletes turned up on the first day of the two-day event, at the KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium.
“There is a tremendous response to the championship as on the very first day of online entry, over 200 athletes submitted their forms in different events,” Lucknow District Athletics Association’s secretary, BR Barun said on Friday.
“There is a boom in athletics after Chopra’s golden success at Tokyo Games, and it’s a very good sign for the sport as the two-day event would be picking up teams for the forthcoming state championship,” he added.
Abhay Singh of KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium and Monika Upadhya of Northern Railway emerged fastest runners in the Under-18 800m event early in the day.
On the other hand, in the Under-14 boys section, Adarsh Mani of Chowk Stadium won the gold medal in 600m with a timing of 1:35.40 minutes, while Aastha Verma took 2:00:23 to finish top in the girls section. Other gold medalists of the day were: Swarn Umar Khan and Swarna Aastha Verma.
FOUR MEDALS
Finswimmers of Uttar Pradesh today created history, winning four medals, including a gold, two silver and a bronze medal on the opening day of the National Finswimming Championship at Goa.
Virat Chauhan won gold in junior C category in 50m event, whereas Anurag Singh (800m) and Dheerendra Yadav (50m) won silver medals. Akash Chauhan claimed a bronze medal in the 50m event.
Expressing happiness over the success of UP swimmers at the nationals, UP Underwater Sports and Fin Swimming’s secretary, Narendra Chauhan said that it was a great moment for everyone as no one had expected a medal in the event, which
is quite technical, in the first appearance of the UP swimmers. “It’s a great achievement for the newly established UPUSFS that swimmers have got off a fine start at the nationals and I am hoping more medals now in the days to come,” he said.