JOIN USAjay Kumar Saroj won the boys’ 1500M race as India won four medals on the first day of the 2014 Youth Olympics Asian Area Qualification event here on Wednesday.
Saroj clocked 3:56.47 to win the gold and seal a berth for the Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing, China from August 16-28. Korean Lee Sangmin (4:00.03) and Saudi Arabia’s Kaabi Ali Mohammed (4:04.47) finished second and third respectively.
Two other Indians won a silver each while another bagged a bronze medal. Maymon Poulose finished second in boys’ 110M hurdles with a national youth record of 13.80 secs. In the boy’s javelin throw, Indian youth champion Neeraj Chopra improved upon his personal best to 70.54M to win a silver. India bagged a bronze in girls’ javelin throw also through Pushpa Jakhar. She hurled the spear to 48.73M. High jumper Libia Shaji finished fifth on count-back after she was initially shown as bronze winner. The organisers corrected the mistake later and placed her at fifth spot. Four girls, including Shaji, had cleared 1.64M.
Among other events, S Mithravarun finished fourth with 54.20M in boys’ discus throw and Rochelle Macfarlane finished seventh in girls’ triple jump (12.39M).