Maymon sets national mark in 110m hurdles

Maymon Poulose finally accomplished his dream of setting a national mark after the Kerala hurdler bettered the youth record in 110m hurdles by clocking 14.03 seconds on the second day of the 11th National Youth Athletics Championships here today.

Panaji: Maymon Poulose finally accomplished his dream of setting a national mark after the Kerala hurdler bettered the youth record in 110m hurdles by clocking 14.03 seconds on the second day of the 11th National Youth Athletics Championships here on Monday.

While Poulose defended his title, Bengal boy Debarjun Murmu, who finished second in 14.25 secs, bettered the previous meet mark. The previous national record of 14.06 secs was held by Saba Bhagat (Maharashtra) while the meet mark stood at 14.33 secs in the name of Amit Kumar Singh of Jharkhand. Maymon, who missed the Asian Youth Games last year, is confident of making it to the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) at Nanjing this time. His today`s timing is as good as the one recorded by Cesar Ramirez of Mexico, the Race C winner of the inaugural edition of the YOG held at Singapore four years ago. Maharashtra`s Ankita Gosavi, bronze medalist in Asian School Track and Field Championships at Kuantan (Malaysia), was another athlete who successfully retained her title by winning the girls` 100m hurdles in 14.47 secs. Delhi girl Shivangi Rawat was second in 15 secs. The morning session witnessed a new meet mark in hammer throw for girls. Madhya Pradesh thrower Rekha set out the ball and chain to a new distance of 46.30m that improved the previous record of 46.09m held by Bhawana of Haryana. Delhi`s upcoming athlete Laxay Sharma, who finished second here, also bettered the meet mark in 46.10m. Delhi`s Naveen won the grueling 10,000m race walk for boys in a time of 46:48.05, closely followed by Haryana lad Manish in 47:01.12. Both of them are trainees of former Haryana walker Ajay Rathi, who is now attached with the Indian camp for race walkers. Rajasthan`s Pradeep Kumar improved the meet record in hammer throw for boys with 67.63m. The second-placed Vivek Yadav of Uttar Pradesh (66.01m) also bettered the previous mark.