Deepika Shines as Javelin Thrower at 39th National Junior Athletics Championships | Bhubaneswar News
The 39th National Junior Athletics Championships is all set to begin at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. The event, supposed to take place from Oct 25-29, was cancelled because of cyclone Dana and will now be held till Dec 11. It will see the participation of nearly 2000 athletes in various age categories like U14, U16, U18 and U20.
While athletes from 30 states and union territories are participating in the event, Haryana have sent the largest contingent with 150 participants and one of their stars who will be in focus during the championship is javelin thrower Deepika. Aged just 19, she threw a personal best of 55.23m (Junior NR) during the 63rd National Open Athletics earlier this year and will be looking to fare even better in Bhubaneswar.
Among others, who will look to steal the limelight are Odisha’s Bapi Hansda (400m), Mahendra Santa (100m & 4x100m), DM Jayaram (100m, 200m and 4x100m relay) and Sabita Toppo (100m hurdles). All of them have been training at the High-Performance Centre (HPC) in Bhubaneswar and chief coach Martin Owens expects them to do quite well over the next few days.
“We had performance graded races for our athletes as preparation. Mahendra clocked a timing of 10.66s in the 100m there, which is the second fastest by an Indian junior athlete. We are really excited to see what he can do,” said Owens in a statement.
Besides the 4x100m relay team, Odisha’s Laxmipriya Kisan (800m, 1500) is another athlete whom Martins believes will be able to put up a good show. “Sabita won the 100m hurdles event at the Police Games last month and is in great shape. Laxmi showed great form during the SAAF Games and we hope she can continue that,” Owens added.
Among other athletes, Tamil Nadu’s Karthik Raja (400m hurdles), Madhya Pradesh pole vaulter Dev Meena, Rajasthan’s Siddharth Chaudhary (shotput) and UP’s Rohan Yadav (javelin throw) will be the ones to watch out for.
While athletes from 30 states and union territories are participating in the event, Haryana have sent the largest contingent with 150 participants and one of their stars who will be in focus during the championship is javelin thrower Deepika. Aged just 19, she threw a personal best of 55.23m (Junior NR) during the 63rd National Open Athletics earlier this year and will be looking to fare even better in Bhubaneswar.
Among others, who will look to steal the limelight are Odisha’s Bapi Hansda (400m), Mahendra Santa (100m & 4x100m), DM Jayaram (100m, 200m and 4x100m relay) and Sabita Toppo (100m hurdles). All of them have been training at the High-Performance Centre (HPC) in Bhubaneswar and chief coach Martin Owens expects them to do quite well over the next few days.
“We had performance graded races for our athletes as preparation. Mahendra clocked a timing of 10.66s in the 100m there, which is the second fastest by an Indian junior athlete. We are really excited to see what he can do,” said Owens in a statement.
Besides the 4x100m relay team, Odisha’s Laxmipriya Kisan (800m, 1500) is another athlete whom Martins believes will be able to put up a good show. “Sabita won the 100m hurdles event at the Police Games last month and is in great shape. Laxmi showed great form during the SAAF Games and we hope she can continue that,” Owens added.
Among other athletes, Tamil Nadu’s Karthik Raja (400m hurdles), Madhya Pradesh pole vaulter Dev Meena, Rajasthan’s Siddharth Chaudhary (shotput) and UP’s Rohan Yadav (javelin throw) will be the ones to watch out for.
