Munita Prajapati scripts new national record in women’s 10000m race walk at National Junior Athletics Championships

Uttar Pradesh’s Munita Prajapati came into her own in scripting a new National Record in the under-20 women’s 10000m Race Walk with a fine victory on the penultimate day of the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships at the Sarusajai Stadium here today. It helped her overcome the pain of being beaten to third place a fortnight ago.

Her time of 47 minutes 53.58 seconds today earned the record from Reshma Patel who pegged the mark at 48:25.90 in winning the Federation Cup Junior U20 Athletics Championships gold in Bhopal on January 26 this year. Munita Prajapati, a 19-year-old from Varanasi, won a race in which the top five finishers bettered the meet mark of 49:16.51 set by Priyanka Goswami in 2014.

Munita’s father Biraju used to work at construction sites in Mumbai till 2010. But he got severely electrocuted and had to be off work for the next three years. After recovery, he decided to stay back in the village and look for menial jobs.

The 16-year-old Reshma Patel, who competed in the under-18 category here, could only watch from the sidelines as Munita Prajapati improved on record and became the first Indian under-20 woman race walker to clock a sub-48 minute time over the distance. It was clear that she took to the track today having doubled her resolve after she finished third in Bhopal.

Khyati Mathur’s show at the high jump pit also caught the eye. Having recovered from a knee injury, the Meerut girl showcased her determination with a personal best leap over the bar at 1.77m. Training in NIS Patiala over the past couple of months, she was confidence personified and added the girls’ under-18 gold to the under-16 titles that she won in 2016 (1.62m) and 2017 (1.63m).

Having surfaced in the National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet in Visakhapatnam in 2015 where she cleared 1.44m to win the under-14 event, she kept improving. For years, her father Vishal Mathur would help her by tracking high jump videos on YouTube but with sound training now, she was able to make her mark on the National stage one more time.

Results (finals):

Under-20

Men

800m: 1 Sree Kiran (Tamil Nadu) 1:52.19; 2. S Nagarjunan (Tamil Nadu) 1:53.52; 3. Sumit Kharab (Haryana) 1:54.23.

Shot Put: 1. Aniket (Uttarakhand) 18.81m; 2. Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal (Punjab) 18.75; 3. Niket (Haryana) 17.68.

Discus Throw: 1. Ashish Kumar (Haryana) 54.79m; 2. Harnoor Singh Sandhu (Punjab) 52.65; 3. Aniket (Uttarakhand) 52.01.

Women

800m: 1. Pooja (Haryana) 2:07.96; 2. Ashakiran Barla (Jharkhand) 2:09.77; 3. Megha (Haryana) 2:15.07.

10000m Race Walk: 1. Munita Prajapati (Uttar Pradesh) 47:53.58 (New National and Meet Records. Old National Record: 48:25.90, Reshma Patel, Bhopal, 2021; Old Meet Record: 49:16.51, Priyanka Goswami, Vijayawada, 2014); 2. Baljeet Kaur Bajwa 48:19.88; 3. Roji Patel (Uttarakhand) 48:23.93.

Triple Jump: 1. P Babisha (Tamil Nadu) 12.31m; 2. Poorva Hitesh Sawant (Maharashtra) 12.24; 3. Sharvari Avinash Parulekar (Maharashtra) 12.17.

Javelin Throw: 1. Jyoti (Haryana) 45.17m; 2. Minu Soren (Bihar) 42.16; 3. Ujala Kumari Singh (West Bengal) 41.70.

Under-18

Boys

800m: 1. Pradeep Senthilkumar (Tamil Nadu) 1:54.68; 2. Shyam Milind Bind (Madhya Pradesh) 1:55.03; 3. Vishanu Kumar (Haryana) 1:55.37.

Girls

800m: 1. Riya Nitin Patil (Maharashtra) 2:12.16; 2. Aakancha Kerketta (Tamil Nadu) 2:13.84; 3. Urvashi (Haryana) 2;14.91.

High Jump: 1. Khyati Mathur (Uttar Pradesh) 1.77m; 2. Roshna Augustine (Kerala) 1.68; 3. Shravani Ramachandra Desvale (Maharashtra) 1.64.

Javelin Throw: 1. Ramyashree Jain (Karnataka) 44.46m; 2. Sonali Santhosh Pawar (Maharashtra) 39.51; 3. Sakshi (Haryana) 38.38.

Under-16

Boys

300m: 1. Deepak Singh (Haryana) 34.78 seconds; 2. Ritik Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) 35.16; 3. Pijush Ghosh (West Bengal) 35.65.

800m: 1. Adarsh Kumar Maurya (Madhya Pradesh) 1:58.72; 2. Abhishek Pal (Uttar Pradesh) 1:58.92; 3. Bopanna Kalappa Thelapanda (Karnataka) 1:59.28.

High Jump: 1. Kothuri Pranay (Telangana) 1.89m; 2. Atharv Shrikant Dhaj (Maharashtra) 1.86; 3. Dhritisman Gowami (Assam) 1.86.

Javelin Throw: 1. Karan Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 63.76m; 2. Himanshu Mishra (Madhya Pradesh) 57.20; 3. Alok Aham (Bihar) 52.42.

Girls

300m: 1. Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland (Karnataka) 40.11 seconds; 2. Soumita Paul (West Bengal) 40.15; 3. Roshani Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 40.94.

800m: 1. Laxita Vinod Sandiela (Gujarat) 2:15.11; 2. Priyanka Madivalappa Olekar (Karnataka) 2:16.86; 3. CS Keerthi (Tamil Nadu) 2:20.60.

3000m Race Walk: 1. Vaishnavi Negi (Uttarakhand) 14:35.60; 2. Shashi (Punjab) 16:30.78; 3. Miya Rose (Kerala) 17:00.31.

Monday’s result:

Under-16 Boys Long Jump: 1. Chandrasekhar (Uttar Pradesh) 6.84m; 2. Dadan Kumar (Delhi) 6.81; 3. Kothuri Pranay (Telangana) 6.68.