Aarti wins 10000m race walk bronze open India's account in World U20 Athletics Championships

Lima: Aarti won a bronze in women's 10000m race walk event with national U20 record time to open India's medal account in the World U20 Athletics Championships here on Friday.

The 17-year-old Aarti clocked 44 minutes 39.39 seconds to finish third in the gruelling event on the penultimate day of competitions.

Aarti broke her own earlier national record of 47:21.04 which she had clocked in March while winning gold in the National Federation Cup U20 Championships in Lucknow.

Chinese race walkers Zhuoma Baima (43:26.60) and Meiling Chen (44:30.67) took the gold and silver respectively.

In the men's 4x400m relay heats, the Indian quartet of Rihan Chaudhary, Ankul, Abiram Pramod and Jay Kumar shattered the national U20 record, clocking 3 minute 08.10 second, to finish second in heat 3 and qualify for the final round.

In the women's 4x400m relay heats, the Indian quartet of Rujula Amol Bhonsle, Neole Anna Cornelio, Abinaya Rajarajan and Sudheeksha Vadluri also rewrote the national U20 record, clocking 45.31 seconds but failed to make it to the final by a whisker after finishing ninth overall. On Thursday night, Pooja Singh rewrote the national U20 women's national record in high jump to enter the final with a ninth-place finish in the qualification round.

The 17-year-old, who hails from Fatehbad district of Haryana, cleared a height of 1.83m to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall and qualify for the final to be held on Saturday.

Daughter of a mason, Pooja broke her own national U20 record of 1.82m set last year in Korea while winning a silver medal at the Asian U20 Championships.