TN, Kerala athletes shine

Tamil Nadu and Kerala won two golds each on the opening day of the 18th national junior athletics championship here today. Tamil Nadu won go...

Tamil Nadu and Kerala won two golds each on the opening day of the 18th national junior athletics championship here today. Tamil Nadu won gold in boys shot put (18 years) when Satheeswaran heaved the iron ball to 14.24 metres. The silver was bagged by Suraj Solanki of Delhi and the bronze by Rahul Ralve of Maharashtra.

They won the second gold when A Amarith Chan took top spot in the girls (16 years) with a throw of 10.99 metres. Indu Bal of Haryana took the silver and Neha Singh of Uttar Pradesh, the bronze. K G Clinton of Kerala leapt to 8.8 metres in the long jump event to bag the first gold for his state. Skindar Pande of Uttranchal got the silver while the bronze was bagged by Jobin Clinte.

Freezy Jose of Kerala won the second gold for his state in the 16-year boys category, with a jump of 1.84 meters. Kamalagust Singh of Jharkhand took the silver and Malki Singh of Punjab the bronze. Meanwhile, more than 100 athletes were disqualified from participating in the championships. Officials said more than 30 athletes from Punjab were disqualified for not producing proper documents in support of age. Age verification was continuing and many more might be barred from participating in the event, the sources added.

A three-member team headed by Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) Director M L Dogra, AAFI technical secretary P K Srivastava and Prof Narasimha Rao of Karnataka Athletic Association were scrutinising the documents. A team of doctors headed by AAFI, medical committee chairman J L Jain were conducting doping tests from time to time.