Chand completes a double, Kerala regains overall championship

Chennai: Orissa`s Dutee Chand exhibited great athleticism to win the gold in 200m and complete a sprint double on the final day of 12th Junior Federation Cup athletics Championship here today.

The 18-year-old equalled former Tamil Nadu sprinter Velu Pandeswari`s 17-year-old national junior record with her timing of 23.95 secs in the 200m event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here. The Odisha sprinter, who earlier eclipsed the 100m record, is confident of doing so in the longer sprint when she would take part in the Asian and World junior championships later this year. Her impressive 100m time of 11.63 secs helped her earn the "Best Athlete" award in the three day meet that concluded here today. Local girl Archana Suseendran (24.70s) and Bengal`s Himashree Roy (24.86s) went home with silver and bronze medals respectively. Tamil Nadu sprinter R Mohan Kumar took the 200m title in junior men`s category in 22.12 secs to prevent Bengal boy Soumyadeep Saha (22.26s) achieving a double. Kamberdeep Singh of Punjab pipped TN athlete MS Arun (22.45 to 22.46s) for the bronze. In discus throw, Punjab`s Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who improved the national junior mark in shot put yesterday, proved her mettle once again with a massive personal best of 53.97m for a `double`. Today`s performance placed her fifth in the world junior rankings for the season and there is only another Asian - Xie Yuchen of China with 54.31m - ahead of her in the lists. Anushi Desai of Maharashtra was more than 10m behind Navjeet for the second place, yet her 43.89m throw surpassed the asian junior qualifying mark of 41.32m comfortably. TN thrower Mahalakshmi, currently training in Patiala, finished third with 41.03m.