Jyothika and Sherin hog the limelight in National under-23 athletics championship

The search is on for young quartermilers to strengthen the Indian women’s relay team for next year’s Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Worlds. And Dandi Jyothika Sri, who had run the quartermile and mixed relay at the 2017 under-18 Worlds, produced an impressive 53.05s for the 400m gold in the first National under-23 athletics championships at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Her time is the second fastest by an Indian this year, behind Priya H. Mohan’s 52.77s which came at the recent under-20 Worlds.

Jyothika’s run was a dominating one and the 21-year-old from Andhra Pradesh finished more than 1.5s ahead of Jharkhand’s Florence Barla. She entered this year with a personal best of 54.70s and clocked 55.98s (inter-State) and 54.83 (National Open) in her last two competitions.

Ayush Dabas won the men’s 400m in a personal best 46.58s while Tamil Nadu’s Sherin Abdul Gafoor also produced a PB 6.45m, the third best long jump by an Indian this year.

Karnataka’s Shashikanth Angadi and Delhi’s National Open champion Taranjeet Kaur finished as the fastest man and woman respectively.

The results:

Men: 100m: 1. V.A. Shashikanth (Kar) 10.57s, 2. Pranav Gurav (Mah) 10.67; 3. G. Kathiravan (TN) 10.85. 400m: 1. Ayush Dabas (Har) 46.58s; 2. Vikrant Panchal (Har) 47.08; 3. Mohammed Hossain (WB) 47.20. 110m hurdles: 1. Tejas Shirse (Mah) 14.12s; 2. Yashwant Laveti (AP) 14.25; 3. Kunal Chaudhary (Del) 14.44. Shot put: 1. Ashish Kumar (Har) 17.20m; 2. Aniket (Utkd) 17.09; 3. Akash Grewal (UP) 17.03. Discus: 1. Basukesh Poonia (Raj) 53.27m; 2. Praveen Kumar (Raj) 51.38; 3. Abhay Gupta (Har) 50.41. Javelin: 1. Rohit Yadav (UP) 72.42m; 2. Anmol Rana (UP) 71.17; 3. Anuj Kalera (Raj) 68.73. 20000m race walk: 1. Suraj Panwar (Utkd) 1:28:53.11s; 2. Amit Khatri (Har) 1:28:54.81; 3. Juned (Har) 1:29:20.78. Decathlon: 1. Yaman Deep Singh (Raj) 6975 pts; 2. Robin Singh (UP) 6636; 3. Mohit (Har) 6615.

Women: 100m: 1. Taranjeet Kaur (Del) 11.54s; 2. A.T. Daneshwari (Kar) 11.66; 3. Nithya Gandhe (Tel) 11.90. 400m: 1. Dandi Jyothika Sri (AP) 53.05s; 2. Florence Barla (Jha) 54.69; 3. Nancy (Har) 55.25. 100m hurdles: 1. Aparna Roy (Ker) 13.80s; 2. K. Nandhini (TN) 13.96; 3. Moumita Mondal (WB) 14.05. Pole vault: 1. Pooja (Har) 3.60m; 2. Pavithra Venkatesh (TN) 3.50; 3. Divya Mohan (Ker) 3.50. High jump: 1. Athira Somaraj (Ker) 1.71m; 2. Rekha (Har) 1.69; 3. Giji Stephen (TN) 1.69. Long jump: 1. Sherin Abdul Gaffoor (TN) 6.45m; 2. Sandra Babu (Ker) 6.29; 3. Pooja Saini (Raj) 6.22. Discus: 1. Sunita (Har) 46.75m; 2. Shivani (UP) 46.25; 3. Neetika Verma (UP) 44.77. 20000m walk: 1. Reshma Patel (Utkd) 1:45:01.55s; 2. Mansi Negi (Utkd) 1:45:45.95; 3. Munita Prajapati (UP) 1:46:20.57.