Prince equals meet record, Aishwarya emerges fastest girl

Prince Chaudhary of Etah in Uttar Pradesh equalled the boys under-16 100m meet record and Nasik's Aishwarya Prajakt More emerged the fastest girl in the 17th MILO National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet here on Sunday.

Had he not started celebrating early, Prince Chaudhary may have secured the meet record for himself rather than only share it with Kshitij Bhoite (Thane) who clocked 11.06 seconds in Ranchi six years ago.

Jitin Chaudhary (Bhind), who finished second, was disqualified as the report of the medical tests that he had undergone a day earlier arrived and he was declared over-age.

Karimnagar's Amirishetti Tharun, who was second fastest in the first round but qualified for the final only as the eighth fastest after he was hampered by a muscle pull in the semifinals, was moved up to the second place with a time of 11.31 seconds, one hundredth of a second ahead of Reasi's Vasu Sapolia.

Nasik's Aishwarya Prajakt More, who has been training for less than two years, strained every sinew to gain a slight edge over Bengaluru Urban's Neole Anna Cornelio over the final 10 metres and win by two-hundredths of a second.

The bespectacled victor as well as Neole Cornelio made the most of a better start than Thane's Reshma Gajanan Gore, fastest in qualifiers.

There was considerable interest at both the high jump and long jump pits where Bengaluru Urban's Pavana Nagaraj (1.61m) and Shaili Singh (5.88m) ruled the roost in the girls under-16 competition.

Daughter of Olympian high jumper Sahana Kumari, Pavana made a bid to secure the meet mark by asking for the bar to be raised to 1.66m but was done in by apprehension about the runway.

Shaili Singh and her rivals braved underfoot conditions that did not afford them the grip they were looking for to reach the acceleration approaching the take-off board. With 5.76 and 5.88 on her third and fourth jumps, she secured the title.

Churu's Susmita made a gallant last-ditch attempt and reached 5.40m to win the silver medal from Lakshmi Gemmala (Vizianagaram).

Mysuru's Likitha Yogesh won the girls under-16 discus throw final with a best effort of 37.41m. She had topped the qualification on the opening day with a best of 37.92m.

Jaidev Dekka (North West Delhi) rewrote the boys under-16 shot put record with a 17.59m effort in qualifications. The previous record of 16.91m was held by Mankiran Singh (Ropar) since 2014.