Pooja sets national record as India shines at Asian U20 Athletics Championships

India’s Pooja set a new national and meet record in high jump with 1.93m at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong. Nitin Gupta, Amanat Kamboj, and Rahul Jakhar also won golds, boosting India’s medal tally significantly

Hong Kong: India’s talented high jumper Pooja improved the national and meet record on the second day of the 22nd Asian U20 Athletics Championships being held in Hong Kong, on Friday.

On her way to winning the gold medal with a jump of 1.93m, Pooja improved the decade-old national record of 1.92m set by Sahana Kumari in 2012. Pooja’s performance on Friday was also better than the previous Asian U20 meet record of 1.90m set by Svetlana Radzivil of Uzbekistan in 2006.

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Race walker Nitin Gupta set the ball rolling by winning first position in the men’s 5000m race walk. His gold-medal-winning time was 19:47.49 seconds. The talented race walker, however, fell short of his own Asian U20 record of 18:47.37. Tushar Panwar, the second Indian in the fray, finished sixth with a time of 20:55.41.

Discus thrower Amanat Kamboj swelled the gold medal tally to three. Her best throw of 52.24m earned her the gold medal in the women’s discus throw. Rahul Jakhar won the fourth gold of the day in the men’s decathlon with 7185 points. Compatriot Upkar won silver with 6854 points.

In the women’s triple jump, Sadhana Ravi won silver with a distance of 12.84m.

Neeru Pathak added a bronze medal to India’s tally as she finished third in the women’s 400m with a time of 53.93 secs, a second-best. India’s Tahura Khatun was fourth with a time of 53.93 secs, a personal best.

In the men’s triple jump, India’s Royshan P was eighth with a distance of 14.87m. Mansi Avinash Yadav finished fourth in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase with a time of 10:45.34 secs.

Earlier on the opening day, young Indian female sprinter Nipam made a memorable debut as she won the 100m bronze in the U20 Asian Athletics Championships on Thursday.

The 18-year-old national record holder in the U20 women’s 100m was slow off the blocks but regained lost ground as she shifted gears to post a time of 11.62 seconds to win the bronze medal. The sprinter from Uttar Pradesh has a personal best (also national U20 record) of 11.53 seconds, clocked during a domestic meet in April. “I’m excited to have won a bronze medal for the team,” jubilant Nipam said.

Nipam is also a member of the national 4x100m relay team and was confident of winning another medal in the four-day continental meet.

Qatar’s 16-year-old Dana Noor Salem had a good start and eventually won the gold medal with a time of 11.47 seconds. China’s Xinxuan Chen, 16, took home the silver with a time of 11.54 seconds.