Three national records tumble in Junior Nationals Athletics

Bangalore, Nov 26 (UNI) A dazzling display by hammer thrower Manju Bala of Rajasthan was the highlight of the second day when three national records were eclipsed in the 22nd National Junior Athletics Championship being held at Sree Kanteerava Stadium here today.

Bala, an 18-year-old girl heaved the iron ball to a distance of 50.06 metres in the Under-18 event, bettering by nearly three metres the old national record of 47.29 m set by Shilpa Chauhan of Uttar Pradesh at the Meerut meet last year.

Virendra Kumar Pankaj of UP and G Gayatri of Tamil Nadu were the other top achievers setting new national marks in boys under-20 400 m and girls under-16 100 m hurdles respectively.

Pankaj clocked 46.99 secs to better his own old mark of 47.16 set in July this year. Gayatri stopped the clock at 14.70 seconds smashing the last year's record of 14.88 secs that stood in the name of Pallavi Sukumar of Karnataka.

Karnataka added three more gold to its kitty, after bagging two yesterday. Maharashtra and UP athletes were also in the limelight winning two gold medals apiece.

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