Bhubaneswar: The opening day of the 40th National Junior Athletics Championships at Kalinga Stadium on Friday belonged to Haryana’s Himanshu and Telangana’s Mohit Choudhary, who rewrote the record books in their respective events and booked a spot on the global stage.
Himanshu, the Asian Youth Champion from Haryana, hurled the javelin (700g) to a staggering 79.96m in the U-18 boys’ qualification round, surpassing the previous meet record of 76.50m set in 2014 by India’s star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra in Vijayawada. The qualification mark for the World U20 men’s javelin stands at 68.50m. “I’ll do better in the final tomorrow,” Himanshu said confidently. “I’ve been regularly crossing the 80m mark in practice and should be able to further improve the meet record.”
Earlier this year, at the 2025 Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Saudi Arabia, Himanshu had won gold with a distance of 67.57m. “I didn’t carry my personal equipment and wasn’t able to do my personal best, which is over 74m in April,” he noted.
Meanwhile, in the men’s U20 5,000m race, Mohit Choudhary of Telangana clocked 14:09.71 seconds, smashing the previous meet record of 14:12.67 set by Vinod Singh in 2024 in Bhubaneswar. The 5,000m and javelin results mark the start of the qualification period for the 2026 World U20 Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, which runs from October 1, 2025, to July 26, 2026.
Day-One Results
Boys:
- U20 100m: Parth Singh (Jharkhand) 10.52s, Pratik Maharana (Odisha) 10.72s, Jasjit Singh Dhillon (Punjab) 10.79s
- U18 100m: Aditya Pisal (Maharashtra) 10.71s, Chiranth P (Karnataka) 10.71s, Savin Thingalaya (Karnataka) 10.81s
- U20 5,000m: Mohit Choudhary (Telangana) 14:09.71s (meet record), Abhinandan S (Maharashtra) 14:19.52s, Dhramraj Jat (Rajasthan) 14:19.68s
- U16 60m: Abhinanth AB (Tamil Nadu) 6.95s (meet record), Hariyant Pindwal (Uttar Pradesh) 7.03s, Tharun A (Tamil Nadu) 7.04s
- U14 Triathlon (B): Arthi SK (Tamil Nadu) 3147 points (meet record), Anushka (Haryana) 2768 points, Adwika KP (Karnataka) 2739 points
Girls:
- U18 100m: Aarti (Haryana) 11.95s, Shourya Ambure (Maharashtra) 12.16s, Prisha Mishra (Haryana) 12.28s
- U20 100m: Suba Dharsini S (Tamil Nadu) 11.94s, Kajal Vaja (Gujarat) 12.01s, Nipam (Uttar Pradesh) 12.03s
- U20 5,000m: Sonam Parmar (Madhya Pradesh) 17:20.98s, Pratima Verma (Uttar Pradesh) 18:04.57s, Pooja (Haryana) 18:26.69s
- U20 Discus Throw: Nitika Kumari (Rajasthan) 48.81m, Supriya Attri (Uttar Pradesh) 48.15m, Riddhi (Haryana) 47.81m
- U16 60m: Jilsha Jinil (Kerala) 7.81s, Mihika Surve (Maharashtra) 7.81s, Pratiksha Mugade (Maharashtra) 7.82s
- U14 Triathlon (C): Sara Ghod (Maharashtra) 2511 points, Ritika (Haryana) 2455 points, Sumona Hansda (West Bengal) 2398 points
Girls: U20: 1500m: Vaishnavi Rawal (Karnataka) 4:29.19 seconds, Radha Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) 4:29.19 seconds, Manju Choudhari (Rajasthan) 4:30.93 seconds.
Pole vault: Boys U20: R Hariharan Ramesh (Tamil Nadu) 4.60m, Aman Singh (Madhya Pradesh) 4.60m, Arya Dev (Uttar Pradesh) 4.60m.
Day one at Kalinga Stadium saw records tumble and emerging stars shine, setting the tone for an exciting championship over the next few days.
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