Bhubaneswar: Day 4 of the National Athletics Championships witnessed a flurry of remarkable performances across age groups, with Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra athletes continuing their dominant run in the relays and field events.
In the U18 Boys’ 1000m medley relay, Tamil Nadu clinched the top spot with a time of 1:54.85 seconds, followed closely by Maharashtra and Bihar, both clocking 1:55.34 seconds.
Among the U16 Girls, Maharashtra captured the gold in the 1000m medley relay with 2:17.36 seconds, while Karnataka and Kerala followed with 2:19.43 seconds and 2:22.92 seconds, respectively.
In the U18 Girls’ long jump, Sadhana Ravi of Tamil Nadu soared to 5.94 metres to claim gold, ahead of Obami Murmu (West Bengal, 5.74 m) and Ananya S (Kerala, 5.69 m).
Tamil Nadu also ruled the U18 1000m medley relay, finishing in 2:11.58 seconds, with Maharashtra (2:12.45 seconds) and Jharkhand (2:20.04 seconds) taking silver and bronze, respectively.
The U20 Women’s 4x100m relay was a thrilling finish, with Maharashtra narrowly edging Karnataka by three-hundredths of a second — 47.72 seconds to 47.75 seconds — while Kerala completed the podium at 49.47 seconds.
In the U20 Men’s 4x100m relay, Karnataka prevailed in another nail-biter, clocking 41.71 seconds, just ahead of Tamil Nadu (41.73 seconds) and Punjab (41.76 seconds).
Among the U16 Boys, Uttar Pradesh took gold in the 1000m medley relay with 1:58.38 seconds, followed by Tamil Nadu (1:59.89 seconds) and Maharashtra (2:00.51 seconds).
The U20 Women’s 200m saw a meet record from Aarti of Madhya Pradesh, who clocked 24.05 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 24.14 seconds set by Sakshi Chavan in 2024. Suba Dharsini S (Tamil Nadu) took silver with 24.35 seconds, and Kajal Vaja (Gujarat) bronze in 24.74 seconds.
In the U20 800m, Vaishnavi Rawal (Karnataka) topped the field with 2:07.84 seconds, ahead of Payal (Haryana, 2:08.27 seconds) and Geetika Dahiya (Haryana, 2:09.18 seconds).
Muskan of Haryana claimed gold in the U20 400m hurdles with 1:01.75 seconds, while Apurva Naik (Karnataka) finished in 1:02.56 seconds and G Prithika (Tamil Nadu) clocked 1:02.79 seconds for third.
The U20 shot put (4 kg) title went to Tamanna (Haryana) with a throw of 15.08 metres, ahead of Anupriya V S (Kerala, 14.49 m) and Alka Singh (Bihar, 14.03 m).
In the U20 Heptathlon, Sriteja Tholem (Telangana) tallied 4654 points for gold, with Harshita (Delhi) on 4383 points and Priya (Haryana) on 4173 points.
The U18 Girls’ 200m title went to Aarti (Haryana) in 24.25 seconds, while Monika Raha (West Bengal) clocked 24.75 seconds and Rashi Singh (Uttar Pradesh) 24.91 seconds.
In the U18 Girls’ 3000m race walk, Ranjana Yadav (Madhya Pradesh) secured gold with 13:41.55 seconds, followed by Vedanti Mangutkar (Maharashtra, 13:45.07 seconds) and Sumanpreet Kaur (Punjab, 13:51.63 seconds).
Closing the day’s events, Anamika Ajesh (Kerala) dominated the U16 Girls’ pentathlon with 4096 points, while Prema Venkatesan (Tamil Nadu) and Sathvika Sakthivel (Tamil Nadu) followed with 3935 and 3883 points, respectively.
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