Pooja shines with two medals on Day 1

The 12th National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet began with the finals of three events out of a total of 30 being decided on day one.

Haridwar: The 12th National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet began today with the finals of three events out of a total of 30 being decided on day one.

Pooja of Kaithal district in Haryana stole the show by winning a gold and a silver in Under-14 girls 600m and in girls under-16 javelin throw events respectively. Pooja clocked 1:45.49 to finish first in the finals of 600m event for girls in under-14 category ahead of Rudraprayag district`s Gauri, who finished second with a timing of 1:46.04. North Delhi district`s Ankita Chahal took third position with a timing of 1:46.05. In the boys under-14 600m event finals, North Delhi`s Akshay Nain took the top honour with a timing of 1:30.90 while Ghaziabad (UP) district`s Himanshu Tomar was second, clocking 1:31.61 and Hisar (Haryana) district`s Monu was third with a timing of 1:31.97. In the girls under-16 javelin throw event, Carmela Barla of Sundergarh district of Odisha finished first with a throw of 30.79 metres. Kaithal girl Pooja, who clinched the under-14 600m race title earlier in the day, was second with a throw of 28.54 metres to take home her second medal in this meet. Bhagalpur (Bihar) district`s Minu Soren finished third, landing the javelin at 27.11 metres. Earlier, the 12th edition of the NID-JAM was inaugurated and declared open by Sports Minister of Uttarakhand Dinesh Aggarwal. Aggarwal lauded the efforts of Athletics Federation of India for promoting the sport across the country. "I congratulate AFI for conducting such a unique meet where talented youngsters from all the districts compete with their peers from other states. The state of Uttarakhand is proud to host the meet and we welcome all 3,500 participants from 260 districts. We hope they will enjoy their visit to the state and return home as brand ambassador for Uttarakhand," he said.