Coimbatore: The three-day Federation Cup National Junior (under-20) Athletics Championship concluded at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday with Haryana asserting its hegemony as the country's new athletic superpower with a tally of 177 points from 44 events.
Kerala, who finished fourth in the previous edition, dropped down to a disappointing fifth place with 96 points. Athletes from the state clinched four gold, silver and bronze each.
Hosts Tamil Nadu (151 points), 2017 champions Uttar Pradesh (110), and Maharashtra (104) finished second, third and fourth, respectively.
Kerala won two gold in the final hours of the meet through J Vishnupriya (400m hurdles) and girls' 4x400m relay team. Abigail Arokianathan (girls' 400m), Sandra Babu (girl's triple jump) won silver for the state on the concluding day, while Ancy Sojan and Abishek Mathew accounted for bronze in Girls' 200m and Boys' 800m, respectively.
A sweet revenge
It was a sweet revenge for Vishnupriya, the 400m hurdles champion. She and her coach C Haridas had approached the Nehru stadium authorities three years ago seeking permission to train on the synthetic track there as her native place Palakkad did not have such modern facilities. However, the officials turned down their request and took a jibe at them by saying, “we don’t want others use our facilities and defeat our children.”
It came as a rude shock to Vishnupriya, but she was not ready to give up. Daughter of Elappully Muthirambalathu Jayaprakash-Girija couple, she trained hard and returned to Coimbatore to avenge the insult by clocking 1:01.65 seconds to clinch the yellow metal.
Relay team dominates
Kerala’s 4x400m girls' relay team comprising Abigail Arokianathan, D Priscilla Daniel, Jisna Mathew and T Sooryamol continued their domination with a timing of 3:48.36 seconds. Maharashtra and Haryana, who finished second and third, could not pose a challenge to the Kerala girls.
In the boys' 4x400m relay, Kerala had to settle for silver despite maintaining a healthy lead till the final few meters. The squad of Binuraj, Abhishek Mathew, Akshay Prakashan, and K R Gokul clocked 3:14.91 seconds to finish behind Haryana.
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