Bhubaneswar: Anshika Routray, daughter of Olympian Anuradha Biswal bagged her first national medal while statemates Samsad Ara Begum and Lakhan Murmu bagged bronze medals in their respective events at the ongoing 33rd National Junior Athletic Championships at Acharya Nagarjuna University grounds in Vijayawada Thursday.
Anshika finished third in the girls’s U-14 shot put event throwing the iron ball to a distance of 10.93 metres while Bharti (11.35m) from Haryana clinched gold. Ramneet Kaur (11.28m) of Uttarakhand took the silver.
The start of the shot put event however, was delayed due to a technical fault by the organisers. The standard weight of the iron ball is three kilograms. However, the participants were provided with a ball that weighed 3.6kg. It was only after a couple of athletes complained, the organisers realised their mistake and subsequently the ball with the correct weight was provided.
Even though mom Anuradha was elated at her daughter’s feat, she said that Anshika will have to work harder to establish her credentials. “She needs to win medals consistently and for that she will have to work very hard,” said Anuradha.
In the junior women’s 5000 metres run, Samsad clocked 19:54.88 seconds while Kavita Yadav (18:56.15s) of Uttar Pradesh bagged the gold while Anita (19:31.60s) of Haryana settled for silver.
Lakhan Murmu who covered a distance of 6.27m brought home the third medal of the day for Orissa by winning a bronze in the U-14 boys’ long jump event. Avinash Kumar (6.79m) of Bihar secured gold while the silver went to Sunil (6.40m) of Haryana.
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