Delhi’s Nisar races to 100m gold
LIGHTNING QUICK Sprinter fastest on track, Nataraj dazzles in 100m backstroke
PUNE: On a day national record holder Srihari Nataraj stayed true to his potential in the pool, sprinter Nisar Ahmed blazed the tracks in U-17 100m here at the Khelo India Youth Games. Considered as the brightest of prospects, they claimed gold in their respective events on Friday.
Ahmed, who rose to fame with a timing of 11 seconds at the 2017 Delhi junior state meet, clocked 10.96 seconds to claim a top podium finish in the 100m. He outran his nearest rival and statemate Anshul by 0.11 seconds. Andhra Pradesh’s Bharath Yadav (11.10 seconds) won the bronze.
Hailingfromazadpurindelhi, Ahmed did not have it easy while growing up. But his success at the junior level has several companies chasing him now and he even went to train for three weeks at the Racers Track Club in Kingston, Jamaica — home to Usain Bolt and other famous sprinters – in February, 2018.
Though Ahmed was far from his timing of 10.76 seconds, which he clocked at the 2018 Khelo India School Games, he was happy with Friday’s effort.
“I was not sure of coming to Pune this time but my childhood coach Sunita Rai told me to come and I could not say no to her,” he said.
There were three other 100m events with the gold medal winners being Tamil Nadu’s Nithin B (U-21, 10.76 seconds), Maharashtra’s Sudeshna Shivankar (U-17 girls, 12.48sec) and Karnataka’s
NATARAJ WINS
Dineshwari AT (U-21 girls, 11.99sec).
Of the 27 medal events in athletics on Friday, hosts Maharashtra won six gold medals followed by Tamil Nadu and Kerala with five each.
The 18-year-old Nataraj clinched his second gold with a timing of 57.07 seconds in the U-21 100m backstroke. Goa’s Xavier D’souza (58.08 sec) and Nataraj’s Karnataka statemate Siva Sridhar (59.79sec) came second and third, respectively.
Nataraj, who holds the senior national records in 50m (26.19 sec), 100m (55.86 sec) and 200m (2:02.83 seconds) backstroke, said he could have bettered his timing. “This is the first competition of the year so I was a little bit rusty. But I would want to take this as a first step in an important year. I have the World Championships and also Olympic qualification coming up,” said Nataraj, who finished sixth in the 200m backstroke at the Jakarta Asian Games.
“Training abroad is an option this year but I will think aboutit only after March as my class XII board exams are coming up.”
Apart from Nataraj’s gold, Karnataka swimmers finished on top in two other events – Siva Sridhar (4:41.75 seconds in U-21 400m medley) and Nina Venkatesh (1:07.87 seconds in U-17 100m backstroke). Delhi swimmers ended with four golds.
Delhi also dominated in judo as the state’s players grabbed three golds from the eight finals on Friday. Maharashtra and Punjab grabbed two each.
HARYANA WRESTLERS DOMINATE
Wrestling powerhouse Haryana continued their domination adding five more gold medals to their tally of 11 so far. Apart from 55kg freestyle, where Uttar Pradesh’s Bharati Bhagel won, all other categories were clinched by Haryana.
In weightlifting, however, it was Manipur and Maharashtra who accounted for four of the six golds on offer, while Uttar Pradesh and Assam grabbed one each. In gymnastics, Maharashtra and West Bengal took one gold each.
ODISHA, HARYANA IN HOCKEY SEMIS
MUMBAI: Haryana produced a 6-1 win over Maharashtra while Odisha edged past Jharkhand 2-1 to enter the last-four stage in hockey.
In the U-21 semi-finals on Sunday, Punjab will take on Haryana while Uttar Pradesh will face Odisha. On Saturday, in the U-17 semi-finals, Odisha will take on Punjab while Uttar Pradesh will be up against Haryana.