Bilaspur, Oct 31 (Sports News) Chhattisgarh's Animesh Kujur, Parvej Khan of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka's P Yashas emerged standout performers as they won the men's 200m, 800m and 400m hurdles finals respectively at the AFI National Open U-23 Athletics Championships here on Monday.

On the final day when as many as eight meet records were set, including two by women, the strapping Animesh, Parvej and Yashas stood out with significant improvement of their personal best efforts.

Parvej drew on his endurance and speed to complete the middle-distance double. The 17-year-old, competing in 800m in a national-level championships for the first time since the Khelo India Youth Games in Guwahati in January 2020, produced a dramatic sprint over the last 150m to make light of the big gap that Pradeep Senthilkumar held with 200m left.

Parvej won in 1:47.96, improving on the 1:51.37 that he clocked in the inter-university meet in January this year. His time was the sixth fastest time clocked by an Indian for the two-lapper this year. The 19-year-old Animesh won the 200m in 21.12 seconds, 0.48 seconds faster than his previous best in the National Games semifinals in Gandhinagar earlier this month. Yashas, 20, who shifted from High Jump to compete in 400m Hurdles, beat favourite Dhaval Uttekar (Maharashtra) to the gold in 50.89 seconds while improving his own best from 52.01.

The other meet records came from Kaustubha Jaiswal (men’s High Jump with a personal best effort of 2.13m), Nitesh Poonia (men’s Hammer Throw) and Rishabh Nehra (men’s Javelin Throw with a personal best of 76.97m).

Karishma Sanil (women’s Javelin Throw) and Tanushree (Heptathlon with a personal best of 4910 points) also created meet records on the concluding day.

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News Source : PTI