Asian under-20 athletics championships: Harshit strikes gold in hammer, silver for Laxita and mixed relay team

Laxita, the under-20 Asian champion in the 1500m last year in South Korea, gave a good fight to Japan’s Nishida Yuri before settling for silver in 2:07.10s (previous best 2:08.24).

Laxita Vinod Sandilea recorded 2:07:10s - her personal best in 800m. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Harshit Kumar won the men’s hammer throw gold while Laxita Vinod Sandilea (women’s 800m) and the 4x400m mixed relay team picked silver medals on the third day of the 21st Asian under-20 athletics championships in Dubai on Friday.

Harshit threw a distance of 66.70m while his teammate Prateek (65.97) took the bronze. The Indian team, comprising P. Abiram, Kanista Teena, Navpreet Singh and Sandramol Sabu, clocked 3:24.86 for the mixed relay silver, behind China, in 3:24.86s while Laxita bettered her personal best by more than a second, clocking 2:07.10s for the 800m silver. Tanvi Malik, the other Indian in the final, was sixth (2:13.42).

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s Shreeya Rajesh took a bronze in the women’s 400m hurdles in 59.20s while her teammate Jeyavindhiya Jegadish finished sixth (1:02.06s).

Harshit won the men’s hammer throw gold while his teammate Prateek took the bronze.  | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

After an eventful Thurday, the championship’s second day when India won four golds, Friday was a bit of a disappointment with Sachin finishing fourth in the men’s 10,000m race walk (45:50.56s) while his teammate Himanshu was disqualified.

And in the women’s hammer throw, the Indian duo of Nadini and Anushka finished fifth (56.99m) and sixth (55.81m) respectively.

The bright spots came from the men’s 4x100m relay which finished second in its heat (40.43s) and entered the final. Also making the final were Sabita Toppo (14.10s) and Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland (13.72s) in the women’s 100m hurdles.