In the World U20 Athletics Championships, Aarti won a bronze in women’s 10000m race walk event with national U20 record time to open India’s medal account. The 17-year-old Aarti clocked 44 minutes 39.39 seconds to finish third in the event.
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 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.
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. Meanwhile, Avani Lekhara created history as she won a historic gold medal at the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 in the Paris Paralympics. Lekhara surpassed her own Paralympic record, raising the bar with a final score of 249.7 as she ended at 249.6 at the previous Paralympics in Tokyo.
Her penultimate shot, a 9.9, temporarily dropped her to second place behind Korea’s Yunri Lee, who seemed to claim the top spot. However, Lekhara’s final shot, a steady 10.5 Lee faltered under pressure, delivering a disappointing 6.8, which allowed Lekhara to clinch the gold by a significant margin of 1.9, sealing her legacy as one of India’s finest Paralympians.
Comments