The curtain fell spectacularly on the 24th National U-20 Athletics Meet in Tumkur as Abhay Singh of Reliance etched his name in history with a sprint double. After conquering the 100m, the young phenom blazed to 200m gold in 20.82 seconds – a new national and meet record, surpassing N. Srinivas’s 21.02s benchmarks from 2021.
Sunday’s action at Mahatma Gandhi Stadium was a record-breaking extravaganza. Athletes routinely hit Asian Junior qualifying times, with standouts like Basant clearing 2.21m in high jump (meet record), Mogali Venkataram running 800m in 1:49.02 (national and meet records), Poonam throwing javelin 51.64m (meet record), and Sadhana Ravi jumping 12.97m in triple jump (meet record).
Men’s podium finishers dominated: 200m saw Abhay (20.82 NR), Rushiraj (21.25), Rudra (21.26) against QT 21.28s; 800m Mogali (1:49.02 NR), Mayank (1:50.27), Harshal (1:50.69) vs QT 1:49.73; Saurabh Rawat (8:25.63), Sandeep Yadav (8:26.88), Vikas Kumar (8:29.15) in 3000m (QT 8:33); Jashanpreet (51.80), Amit (51.98), Sahil (52.96) in 400m (QT 52.00).
Field events dazzled with Sumit Rathi (9:28.04 steeplechase QT 9:36.78), Rohan Yadav (73.37m javelin QT 65.31), Nishchay (57.02m discus QT 50.41), Royson P (15.75m triple QT 15.62), Basant (2.21m high jump MR, QT 2.11).
Women matched the intensity: Bhumika (24.21s 200m QT 24.34), Nagini (2:12.06 800m QT 2:07.56), Sakshi (9:45.43 3000m QT 9:38.91), Tanu (59.38s 400m QT 59.20), Mani (11:10.59 steeplechase QT 11:31.35), Poonam (51.64m javelin MR QT 51.02), Nandini (58.78m hammer QT 61.19), Sadhana (12.97m triple MR QT 12.67), Puja (1.80m high QT 1.74), Jaskiran (4367 heptathlon QT 5432).
This championship has unearthed a generation ready to conquer global stages, with records falling like dominoes.
