Sixteen-year-old local athlete, Arjun Singh, not only snatched the gold medal in shot put, but created a state record with his 17.89m throw in the 35th Maharashtra State Junior Athletics Championship 2019, held in Devran, Ratnagiri on August 19-20. Athletes from Pune bagged 32 medals with the boys winning nine gold, four silver, and five bronze medals; while the girls secured seven gold, four silver and three bronze medals.
Fifteen-year-old Avantika Narale finished first in the 100-metre and 200-metre sprints. Later, she was a part of the Pune team which won the 1000-m sprint medley relay.
Sangita Shinde took the first place in the 400-m run as Shivechha Patil bagged a gold in the 800-m run.
A golden run of consecutive victories came to an end as Akansha Gaikwad had to settle for silver in the 1500m. The girls from Pune failed to bag any medal in the 3000m and 100m hurdles, but did manage to add two more medals in the 400-m hurdles, with Dipali Bandal finishing third, behind runner-up Arti Barge.
The boys from Pune failed to win any medal in the 100m, but did snatch silver in the 200m, courtesy of Akshay Govardhan. Govardhan went on to win a gold medal in the 400m as Balram Singh took bronze in the same race. Pune got a one-two finish at the end of the 800m run as Parkash Gadade won the gold and Sumit Kumar snatched the silver medal. Saurabh Rawat added another gold to the tally after winning the 1500m, while Gitesh Chavan did not finish the race, due to an injury.
There was another one-two finish for Pune as Uttam Yadav and Monu Singh won the gold and silver, respectively, in the 3000m.
The boys’ team of Aryan Francis, Akshay Govardhan, Sumit Kumar, D Darekar, Balram Singh, and Parkash Gadade; and the girls’ team of Avantika Narale, Aabha Salunkhe, S Shetty, M Chandak, Sangita Shinde and Arpita Mali, both earned gold medals in the 1000m sprint medley relay. Aayush Kharkwal finished second in the 10,000m walk.
Nilesh Awale finished third and bagged a bronze medal for his 6.47m attempt in long jump. He was 9cm short of silver and 32cm short of gold. He did make up for this in the triple jump where he completed a leap of 14m to bag gold as Akash Jadhav nabbed the bronze medal. In both events, the girls were unable to win a medal, but managed to win bronze in high jump, courtesy 16-year-old Himani Khaire. The boys bagged two medals in high jump after Vivek Chary took first place and Abhar Datta had to settle for a bronze medal.
Sixteen-year-old local boy, Arjun Singh, snatched the gold medal in shot put. This time, it was the girls who got Pune a one-twwo as Kaniska Dhole nabbed a silver, finishing behind the winner, Sawari Shinde.
Dhole bagged another medal as she finished third in discus throw, while Virender Singh ensured a gold in the boy’s category. Shlok Dudhane notched a bronze in the hammer throw as the girls failed to win a medal in that event. The girls did manage another one-two in javelin throw as Sakshi Jadhav and Charuta Khare finished first and second, respectively, to add two more medals to the tally.
