National junior athletics | Four meet records rewritten on concluding day

Pratik Maharana sets new meet record in under-18 men's 200m at National junior athletics championships.

Local favourite Pratik Maharana defied a sore back to script a new meet record while securing the under-18 men’s 200m gold medal on the concluding day of the National junior athletics championships at the Kalinga Stadium here on Wednesday.

Running in good rhythm, Maharana held on to his lead confidently as he lowered his personal best from 21.41, clocked at the South Asian junior meet in Chennai in September, to 21.28 to record an impressive victory.

“I did light training to balance my rehab and preparation for this competition. I was aiming for the National record (21.08), but had to settle for the meet record,” said 17-year-old Maharana, training at Rourkela.

Sumit Rathee (8:45.75) won by a margin of more than 11 seconds while leading a pack of four runners, who smashed the meet record in under-20 men’s 3000m steeplechase.

National record holder Deepika (52.45m) rewrote the meet record with her second throw as she claimed the under-20 women’s javelin title.

Sakshi Chavan, who took the under-20 100m gold, switched to under-18 200m to pick up her second gold with a meet record (24.14).

Homeboy Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram – who added the under-20 200m crown to his 100m title – and Prachi Devkar, making her National debut in the 3000m steeplechase after winning the 5000m yellow metal, also snatched their second gold medals.