Sunil Dawar breaks 24-year-old National Record at National Junior Athletics Championships
Dawar clocked 14 minutes 13.95 seconds at the Sarusajai Stadium to break the previous record of 14:14.48 achieved by N Gojen Singh in 1996
5000m runner Sunil Dawar set a new bar as records continued to be shattered at the National Junior Athletics Championships in Guwahati on Monday.
Dawar from Madhya Pradesh broke a 24-year-old national record in U20 men's 5000m to bag a gold medal at the event. He clocked 14 minutes and 13.95 seconds at the Sarusajai Stadium to break the previous record of 14:14.48 achieved by N Gojen Singh at the World Junior Championships in Sydney, 1996.
Dawar, who was challenged hard by Punnet Yadav from Haryana, not only bettered the national U-20 record but also broke Rahul Kumar Pal’s meet record of 14:18.28 set in Lucknow in 2012. Dawar also won the 1500m event, clinching a memorable double.
Incidentally, it was the second 1500-5000m double secured by Dawar in a fortnight, after his prolific run in the Federation Cup Junior U20 Athletics Championships in Bhopal last month.
There were some stellar performances on show in other disciplines as well with Harshita Sherawat bettering her own U-18 hammer throw National Record with a 63.33m effort.
The 17-year-old had thrown 63.62m and 63.95m in the North Zone Junior Athletics Championships in Sangrur in September 2019. However, the National Record stood ratified at 61.93m which she marked while clinching a silver medal at the Asian Youth Championship held in Hong Kong in March 2019.
Race walker Amit Khatri, however, failed to better the 10000m Race Walk National Record as he bagged the top podium spot with a timing of 42 minutes 15.91 seconds. He had performed better in the previous events as he clocked 40:40.97 in the Federation Cup Junior Championships in Bhopal on January 27.
Meanwhile, Yashwant Kumar Laveti from Andhra Pradesh clinched victory in the U-20 men’s 110m Hurdles, with a timing of 13.92 seconds to equal the National and Meet Records set by J Surendhar in Bengaluru in 2010.