Two national records in Inter-Zonal Junior Athletics

Sprinters Augustine Yesudas and M S Arun of Tamil Nadu stole the limelight with national records in their respective age groups on the opening day of National Inter-Zonal Junior Athletics Championships here today.
Yesudas, a 19-year-old B.Sc second year student from Chennai's Loyola College and a consistent winner of national titles in youth division (under-18) for the past couple of years, got his first junior division (under-20) gold as he led a thin field of four athletes with his superb run.
The TN sprinter clocked an impressive 10.57 secs that bettered the previous national mark of 10.61 secs held by Surender Singh of Haryana since 2004 Junior Federation Cup at Jamshedpur.

Gujarat's Ramanand (11.02s) and Maharashtrian Gaurang Ambre (11.09s) took the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Arun, who has also shown a steady progress in the recent years, went on to obliterate the boys under-16 division national mark as he clocked 11.01 secs that improved state-mate A J Mohammed Fayaz's 11.03s which stood in the record books since 2006 junior Nationals.
International S Archana, a specialist in 200m, clinched the gold in the 100m for junior women as she timed 12.10 secs and pushed her teammate P Deepika (12.26s) to second place.
The opening day also witnessed meets marks being bettered only in boys' events through Chandan Baurai of West Bengal (400m; 49.25 secs) and Abhishek Kumar Mishra of Madhya Pradesh (shot put; 16.20m) in under-16 category, R Naveen of Tamil Nadu (100m; 11.45 secs) in under-14 division as well as Haryana discus thrower Sachin (55.30m) in junior men's category.