M’lore varsity athlete eyes medal in Olympics

Juned K T of Mangalore University clinched the first place in the 20-km race walk for men at the 80th inter university athletic meet organised at Moodbidri.

He has also created a new record in the meet, which is being organised by Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and Alva’s Education Foundation.

Juned, being trained in Patiala, is eyeing a medal in the Olympics. He clocked 1 hour 26 minutes and 39.78 seconds while Naveen of Mangalore University, who clocked 1:26:53.56, won the second place. Rahul of University of Delhi (1:28:12.30) and Hardeep of Maharshi Dayanand University (1:29:4.68) won the third and the fourth places respectively.

Interestingly, all the four winners have erased the previous meet records. In 2013, the meet record was set by B K Kumar of Pt Ravishankar Shukla University Raipur and had clocked 1:29:08.00.

An elated Juned, a First year BA student of Alva’s College, Moodbidri, said, “Sports and sportspersons are given importance at the Alva’s College. Prior to this record, I had set junior-level national records. I am immensely pleased to win this record at university level.”

Hailing from Pachgaon in Gurgaon district of Haryana, he said, “None of my family members was educated. I had a liking for sports since my young age and used to run without wearing any shoes. At the National School Athletics Meet at Ranchi in 2018, I created a record in the 5-km walk. Later, I created a record in the 10-km walk in Jharkhand.”

Long jump record

In Long Jump (women), A Sherin from the University of Madras created a meet record with a leap of 6.32 m. She erased the record of 6.28 m, set by Mayookha Johny of the University of Kannur in 2008.

The other winners in the event are Aishwarya B, Mangalore University (6.25m), Maneesha Merel – Sambhalpur University (6.20m).

WINNERS:

400m Hurdles (men): Dhawal Utekar (Sardar Patel University – 51.300); D Amarnath (Rani Channamma University – 51.871) and Abhay Narayan Yadav (Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University – 51.950).

400m Hurdles (women): Preeti, (V B S P U, Jaunpur – 59.910); Priya R V Viswa, (SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai – 59.987); Nanhi, (Maharshi Dayanand University – 1:00.319).

Discus throw (women): M Karunya (University Of Madras – 48.03m); Bhavana (Yadav University of Delhi – 46.57m) and Nidhi Rani (Mangalore University – 45.89m).

100-m run (men): Naresh Kumar K (Acharya Nagarjuna University Guntur – 10.570); G Kathiravan (Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli – 10.612); Nath Omkar (MG University Kottayam – 10.653).

100m run (women): Jyothi Y (Acharya Nagarjuna University – 11.642); S Dhanalakshmi (Mangalore University – 11.683); Kaur Amrit (Punjabi University – 11.873).

800m run (men): Amandeep (Maharshi Dayanand University – 1:54.10); Gaurav Sharma (Jiwaji University Gwalior – 1:54.37); Mujamila (Mangalore University – 1:54.42).

800m Run (women): Sunila Kumari (Mangalore University – 2:07.97); Ladkat Yamuna (Savitribai Phule Pune Uni, Pune – 2:08.25); Aleesha P R (MG University, Kottayam – 2:08.50).

Hammer throw (men): Pradeep Kumar (Mangalore University – 64.19 m), Damneet Singh (Punjabi University – 62.15m); Ravi (Maharshi Dayanand University – 61.33m).