Saurabh steals show with national record in Shotput

Chennai, June 17 (UNI) Saurabh Vij of Delhi stole the limelight on the concluding day setting a new national record in the Boys under 20 Shotput event with a throw of 20.35m, erasing Ranvijay Singh's four year-old record of 20.16m set in Mumbai in the Federation Cup Junior Athletics Championships at the Nehru Stadium here today.

The Delhi based 18 year-old Saurabh later said he was looking forward to Asian Juniors next meet month. ''I am confident of earning a Gold for India there'', he said, adding his long term goal was to win a gold in the 2010 Commonwealth games to be hosted by India.

Another star performer was Jhuma Khatun who continued her record breaking run, the second in row smashing the girls 800m meet record with a timing of 2:10.24s while Sajeesh Jospeh of Kerala made his presence felt with a meet record in boys 800m clocking 1:50.22s.

Vinod Raj Paul of Tamil Nadu set the third meet record of the day in boys triple jump with a leapt of 15.90m while his teammate Pavan Kumar took the silver with 14.76m. The bronze went to Anoop Thomas of Kerala with a 14.63m Jump.

Kerala emerged the overall champion with a total point tally of 197.5 while Uttar Pradesh bagged runners-up. Hosts Tamil Nadu, who were hoping to claim the title, finished third with 106 points.

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