Hammer throwers Ashish Jakhar and Damneet Singh got India’s challenge in the 2018 Asian Junior Athletics Championship to a rousing start as they comfortably grabbed the gold and silver with personal best efforts in Gifu, Japan, on Thursday.

Jakhar created a new national u-20 record to clinch the gold medal with a throw of 76.86 in his second attempt while Damneet bagged the silver with a best throw of 74.08.

The 19-year-old, who had broken the U-20 national mark in Junior Federation Cup in April, began with a throw of 74.08 to take the lead and was assured of the gold medal when he broke the national mark in his very second attempt.

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Even Damneet faced no challenge for his second spot as he began with a throw of 70.42 and maintained the 70+ standard before hurling the 6kg hammer to his personal best distance in the last attempt. Japan’s Masanobu Hattori clinched the bronze with a final throw of 69.34m.

Bronze for Priyadarshini, Sonune

After the throwers opened India’s account triple jumper Priyadarshini Suresh grabbed the triple jump bronze medal with a personal best jump of 13.08m in her second attempt. Compatriot Sandra Babu was fourth with a best jump of 12.70m in her last two attempts.

The gold went to Vietnam’s VU Thi Ngoc Ha who cleared a distance of 13.22m in her very first attempt while China’s Youqi Pan was the clear second with a final jump of 13.21m.

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In the last medal event of the day, Nashik girl Poonam Sonune kept her composure despite an extreme high pace of the race for her to finish third with a timing of 17:03.75. Japan’s Mikuni Yada clinch the gold with almost half a minute advantage with a timing of 16:31.65 while China’s Lihua Niu took the silver with a timing of 16:55.54.

Suman Rani, who had beaten Sonune in the Junior Federation Cup, could not come anywhere near her personal best and finished fifth with a timing of 18:05.71.

Indians also had a good outing in the women’s 400m heats and men’s 1500m heats.

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Pre-event favourite Jisna Matthew topped the 400 metres heat 1 event with a timing of 54.78 to qualify for the final. Compatriot Rachna, however, failed to qualify for the final after clocking a time of 58.07 to finished fifth in the second heat.

In the 1500 metres men’s heats, Ajit Kumar won his heat with a timing of 3:58.46 while Ankit Sharma finished second in Heat 2 with a timing of 3:59.11. Both qualified for Friday’s final.

The only disappointment was 100-metre sprinter Gurindervir Singh failing to qualify to the finals. He holds the U20 national record of 10.47 seconds but could only manage a timing of 11.09 in the heats.