Anu Kumar (Uttarakhand) claimed the first gold medal of the Khelo India School Games, as Tamil Nadu won two of the six gold medals on offer on the opening day of the athletics competitions of the Games.
While Tamil Nadu athletes took two gold medals, the rest were shared between Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium this morning.
Anu Kumar who trains at the sports college Raipur and is a past 800m silver medallist for India at the World School Games in France, won the 1,500m final comfortably in 4:04.77 seconds. An established middle distance star, Uttarakhand’sAnu, who won the 800m silver in 1:53.59 seconds in France, has in the past run below four minutes and at these Games.
He is aiming for 800m-1,500m double. Anu dominated the race pushing B Mathesh of Tamil Nadu and Sandeep Kumar of Uttar Pradesh to silver and bronze medals.
The girls 1500m saw Kathiriya Shraddha of Gujarat cross the tape first, but following a protest from one of the other teams, she was disqualified as the judges deemed her compatriot in the final lap illegally paced her. The judges awarded the gold to Kerala’s promising C Chanthini, who clocked 4:50.81.
In the field events there were some good performances in the boys Shot Put and triple jump events. Abhishek Singh of Uttar Pradesh won the Shot Put with an excellent throw of 18.73m while Praveen of Tamil Nadu won the triple jump in his sixth attempt with 15.22m.
Abhishek Singh had four successful throws beyond 18 metres with the best of 18.73 in his second last attempt winning him the gold. He had two other good throws of 18.54m on the last attempt and 18.38m in his second shy. KartikayDeswal (Madhya Pradesh) bagged the silver with his sole 18 metres plus mark of 18.29.
In boys Triple jump, C Praveen won with 15.22 metres in his sixth jump, while Sachin Gujjar (UP) with 14.46m were second and Akash M Varghese (Kerala) with 14.27m was placed third.
Haryana girls excelled in the Shot Put with two medals out of three. Pooja won the gold with a best of 13.88m while the bronze went to Rekha with a best effort of 13.20m. Ajenci Susan of Tamil Nadu claimed the Silver with 13.39m. Pooja dominated the event with three of her throws better than silver medallist.
In girls triple jump J Coleshiya was the winner with a best leap of 12.29m, whileSandra Babu (Kerala) was right behind her in second place at 12.27m and PM Tabitha (TN) was third with a best of 11.95m.