India's Ashish wins hammer throw gold in Asian junior meet

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Bengaluru, June 7: India's Ashish Jakhar created a national Under-20 record en route to clinching the men's hammer throw gold with a distance of 76.86M at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship in Jifu, Japan, on Thursday (June 7).

Jakhar led an India 1-2 on the opening day of the four-day meet at the Gigu Nagaragawa Stadium with Damneet Singh clinching silver with an effort of 74.08.

The host nation's Masanobu Hattori clinched the bronze with a final throw of 69.34M.

The Haryana lad's record-breaking throw came in his second attempt. The 19-year-old, who had broken the U-20 national mark in Junior Federation Cup in April, began with a throw of 74.08 to take the lead and was assured of the gold medal when he broke the national mark in his very second attempt.

Damneet began with a throw of 70.42 and maintained the 70 plus standard before hurling the hammer to his personal best distance in the last attempt.

India, who are fielding 18 men and nine women, in 16 different events had more to cheer as triple jumper Priyadarshini Suresh won the triple jump bronze medal with a personal best jump of 13.08m in her second attempt while 3,000M runner Poonam Sonune added the fourth medal of the day for India by clinching bronze as she finished the race in 17: 03.75.

In the triple jump, Vietnam's VU Thi Ngoc Ha grabbed the gold after clearing a distance of 13.22m in her very first attempt while China's Youqi Pan won the silver with a final jump of 13.21m. India's Sandra Babu was fourth with a best jump of 12.70M in her last two attempts.

In the women's 3,000M, Japan's Mikuni Yada clinched the gold with almost half a minute advantage with a timing of 16:31.65 while China's Lihua Niu took the silver with a timing of 16:55.54.

The only disappointment for India was 100M sprinter Gurindervir Singh failing to qualify to the finals. He holds the U-20 national record of 10.47 seconds but could only manage a timing of 11.09 in the heats.

A total of 1,518 athletes (832 men and 686 women) are participating in the tournament which looks set to be the second-biggest World U-20 Championships to date, bettered only by the 2012 edition in Barcelona, where 1,566 athletes participated.

(With Agency/Asian Athletics inputs).