NAGPUR athletes set the synthetic track on fire winning as many as five gold medals for Maharashtra on the opening day of the Western Zone Junior Athletics Championship at Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University’s track in Ravi Nagar. Mitali Bhoyar, Abhimanyu Kushwaha, Chaitali Borekar Samit Tong and Kashish Bhagat all ran away with the gold medal making it a memorable day for Maharashtra. Mitali won the gold medal in (U-20) 5000m with a time of 18 minutes 24.49 seconds. Radha Sharma of Madhya Pradesh finished second (18 min 39.55 sec) while Neeta Salame of Chhattisgarh finished third in 20 minutes 21.74 seconds. Shot putter Abhimanyu gave Maharashtra second gold in U-18 boys shot put event with a throw of 16.84m while Maharashtra’s Krishna Korde won silver (15.92m) and Kundan Kumar Gurjar of Rajasthan won bronze (15.33m).

 

In the afternoon session, city’s Sameet Tong won the gold medal in the 1500m race in 4 minutes 08.24 seconds while Chhattisgarh’s Ashitosh Tiwari clocked 4 minutes 9.07 seconds to finish at the second spot. Amit Jagdamba (Gujarat) finished third with (4 minutes 29.54 seconds). Chaitali then won another gold medal for the State in U-20 1500m race. She crossed the finish line in 4 minutes 51.26 seconds while Radhika Sharma (Madhya Pradesh) claimed second spot (4 minutes 55.06 seconds). Anjali Meena (Rajasthan) finished third (5 minutes 02.83 seconds). Kashish Bhagat, another Nagpurian, ended the golden day for Maharashtra winning the yellow metal in Under-18 girls 400m. She won the gold in 58.26s. Chhattisgarh’s Tania Kevat clocked 59.61 seconds to take home silver while Rajasthan’s Priyanka finished third with 02.40 seconds. Earlier, the competition was inaugurated by Commonwealth Games silver medallist Ritesh Anand.