NAGPUR: On a pleasantly cool Sunday morning, Nagpur's Gopal Palandurkar and Adarsh Bhure scripted history at the University track by winning a silver and bronze medal in the 100m race of the 72nd Maharashtra state senior athletics championship.
In the late 90s, Nagpur had produced India's fastest sprinter
Rajeev Balakrishnan, though the city's star athlete never won the 100m medal in any senior state championship of Maharashtra. In 1997, Nagpur Olympian Balakrishnan had bettered his own 100m mark for the third time by finishing the race in 10.36 seconds in the nationals. Though he clinched a medal in the 200m race, Rajeev had missed the 100m medal at any Maharashtra event. He then went to Bangalore and clinched 100m gold medals in various senior national championships, informed NDAA secretary Sharad Suryawanshi.
On Sunday, city sprinters Gopal and Adarsh gave Nagpur the elusive 100m medal. While Gopal clocked 10.78 seconds for the silver, Nagpur men's team skipper Adarsh gave a timing of 10.85s to finish third. Pune's Pranav Gurav retained his 100m gold medal with a timing of 10.63s.
Speaking to TOI, both Gopal and Adarsh said they were elated on creating history. "We are on top of the world for winning this elusive 100m medal that too on our home track. We now have a target to finish the race under 10.30s, and if we qualify for the nationals, we will try to achieve that mark."
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