Nagpur: City’s prodigious middle-distance runner Janhavi Hirudkar once again proved her mettle at the National athletics meet.
In the 20th National Youth Athletics Championship currently in progress at the Patliputra Sports Complex in Patna, Bihar, the 17-year-old Janhavi clinched silver medal in the girls’ 1,000m race on Wednesday.
Nandani Rajbhar of Uttar Pradesh clocked 2:55.68 minutes to win the gold medal, Janhavi gave a timing of 2:56.54m to finish second and Haryana’s Muskan (2:58.98) won bronze medal.
On her way to clinch the silver medal, Janhavi successfully cleared the qualifying mark of 3 minutes, 11 seconds set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to select the Indian contingent for the Sixth Asian Youth (U-18) Athletics Championship slated at Dammam, Saudi Arabia, from April 15 to 18.
“Janhavi has been giving consistent performance in recent years. She has won a handful of medals in the recently held 1,000m, 1,500m and 2,000m races at the national level. She has a good chance to represent the country in the forthcoming Asian championship. If the AFI’s selection committee picks Janhavi to represent India in the Asian meet, she will be required to participate in the 1,500 meter race,” Janhavi’s coach Ashfaq Sheikh told TOI.
Earlier during the 39th junior national athletics meet at Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, Janhavi had won silver in the 1,000m race and at U-17 school nationals athletics meet in Bihar the Nagpur girl won the gold medal in the 1,500m race.
In the boys 1,000m race, city’s Pranay Upase missed the podium finish by a whisker. Though Pranay broke the meet record with a timing of 2:28.54 minutes, he missed the medal after finishing fourth.
In the girls 400m race, city’s Kashish Bhagat clocked 56.65 seconds to finish fifth.
