Damneet wins silver at under-18 Worlds

Indian hammer thrower Damneet Singh hit a personal best 74.20m and won the silver at the IAAF World under-18 athletics championships in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday.

Damneet Singh achieved a personal best in his first attempt which was the best of his six-throw series.

Indian hammer thrower Damneet Singh hit a personal best 74.20m and won the silver at the IAAF World under-18 athletics championships in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday.

The 16-year-old national youth champion from Punjab achieved a personal best in his first attempt which was the best of his six-throw series. Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan won the gold with 82.31m.

This is the country’s fifth medal in the World championships. While long jumper Anju Bobby George won India’s lone senior World championships medal, a bronze, in 2003, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won the junior gold with an under-20 world record last year. Junior discus throwers Seema Antil Punia (bronze, 2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze, 2014) were the others to do well at the Worlds.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s Ch. Palendra Kumar in the boys section, West Bengal’s Rajashree Prasad and Assam’s Hima Das in the girls section qualified for the 200m with personal best timings in Nairobi.

Earlier, Mohit (18.42m) and Kartikay (16.95) finished ninth and 11th respectively in the boys shot put final while Avinash Yadav was nearly ten metres behind his personal best, finishing 12th in the boys javelin throw final. And girls triple jumper Lizbeth Karoline Joseph was last in the preliminary round with 12.19m.