Kerala retains overall championship

Bangalore, Nov 29 (UNI) Kerala retained the overall championship title, even as two national and five meet records were created on the concluding day of the 22nd National Junior Athletics titles held in Sree Kanteerava Stadium here today.

Kerala amassed 479 points enabling it to defend its title, while Tamil Nadu got 318 points to retain its runner-up position. Kerala won the championship in all the U-14, U-16, U-18, U-20 categories.

In the girls section, Kerala's Chinchu Jose (U-16), Tintu Luka (U-18) and T J Mayookha Johny (U-20) bagged the individual championship, while in the boys section, Uttar Pradesh lads Harminder Singh (U-16) and Virendra Kumar Pankaj (U-20) and Kerala's Shejil Verghese (U-18) bagged the individual titles.

Mayookha Johny created a national record in triple jump in the girls U-20 category by covering a distance of 13.11 m, obliterating the ten-year-old record in the name of Anju Markose (12.87 m). Sumita Saha of West Bengal and R Aruna of Tamil Nadu had to be content with the silver and bronze respectively.

In the girls U-16 category, Chinchu Jose of Kerala set a new national record in 800 m with a superb timing of 2:13.11 sec, thus erasing her statemate Tintu Luka's two-year-old record of 2:15.37 sec.

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