Jaison sets new record in pole vault

Guntur (Andhra Pradesh): Kerala vaulters ruled the roost with Mariya Jaison winning the gold medal with a new height of 3.20-metre in the 10th National Youth Athletics Championships here today.

On the second day of the meet, Jaison eclipsed the previous mark of 2.82m held by state-mate Sinju Prakash. However, Mariya could not succeed in her attempt to break Sinju`s national mark of 3.30-metre. The day also witnessed UP hammer thrower Prakash Singh attaining the qualifying standard for the World Youth Championships by throwing the ball and chain to 63.52m. The qualifying mark in this event stands at 63m. Due to extreme heat and humidity, many top class athletes failed in their attempt to gain a berth in the national team for the global youth meet to be held in Donetsk, Ukraine, in July. Also there are cases in which some athletes who had already achieved the required norm during last year`s Junior Nationals at Lucknow, could not repeat their performance on the clay track at the Brahmananda Reddy Stadium. The winner of the first event of the day, Shailesh Kumar from Madhya Pradesh, was almost 2 minutes slower than his Lucknow performance in boys` 10,000m walk. Shailesh clocked 46:13.92 in Lucknow whereas he managed only 48:35.07 here. In boys 110m hurdles, Maymon Poulose of Kerala clocked 14.71 secs for the gold. In the 400m run for boys, Haryana lad Ajay clocked 50.70 secs to win the gold. Ankita Gosavi of Maharashtra won the 100m hurdles for girls with a timing of 14.80 secs but just missed the qualification mark by 0.25 secs. Overnight leaders Haryana continued their pole position with 104 points with Kerala moving in to second spot with 69 points. PTI