Indian athletes shine at junior South Asian Athletics meet

CHENNAI: The Indian contingent had a fruitful time, bagging the top spot in the medals tally in the recently concluded junior South Asian Athletics Championship (SAAC) in Chennai. A few Indian athletes, including DM Jayaram, stood out by clinching more than one medal.

Jayaram starred by winning a brace of medals, a bronze in the men’s 100m event and a silver in men’s 4x100m relay. Meanwhile, Abinaya Rajarajan from Tamil Nadu enjoyed home support and took home two gold medals (one each in women’s 100m and women’s 4x100m relay).

Speaking about the performance, Martin Owens, head coach, Odisha-RF HPC, said, “The SAFF Junior Athletics Championships was a good meet and opportunity for some young athletes to represent India for the first time. From our point of view, Jayaram ran exceptionally well. He was up against two very high-quality Sri Lankan sprinters, who like Jayaram had taken part in the Junior World Championships. He ran his best race of the season so far, so I was very pleased with his effort.

“The best performance from our contingent for me was Sabita’s as she ran under 14s for the first time. When she is in tip-top condition, she does very well,” Owens added.

Sabita notched her personal-best time of 13.96s and was inside the previous SAAF junior record en route to her medal. Kisan, who was a last-minute entry, clocked 2:10.87 to win silver in women's 1500m.

Other notable performers include quarter-miler Jay Kumar, Shahruk Khan, Jithin Arjunan and Deepika. Jithin, 16, who took part in his international competition upset Asian U-20 bronze medallist Mohd. Atta Sazid to clinch the top spot. Jithin registered 7.61m, while Sazid settled with a best effort of 7.43m.

On the final day of the competition, ever-improving javelin thrower Deepika once again stood firm and broke the meet record by recording 54.98m. She took home gold, while her academy mate Poonam bagged silver.


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