India's Aarti sets new national record, wins bronze in women's 10000m race walk?at World U20 Athletics Championships
Racewalker Aarti opened India's account in the ongoing World U20 Athletics Championships in Lima, Peru, on Friday with a bronze medal in the women's 10,000m race walk event.
First medal for India
The 17-year-old Aarti won the bronze medal, clocking an impressive time of 44 minutes 39.39 seconds to finish third in the grueling event on the penultimate day of competitions.
Broke her own record
Aarti broke her own earlier national record of 47:21.04, which she had clocked in March while winning gold in the National Federation Cup U20 Championships in Lucknow.
China's racewalkers Zhuoma Baima (43:26.60) and Meiling Chen (44:30.67) walked away with the gold and silver medals, respectively.
Four national records set at World U20 Athletics Championships
While Aarti is so far the only medal winner for India in the World U20 Athletics Championships, the competition saw three more national records being set.
In the men's 4x400m relay heats, the Indian quartet of Rihan Chaudhary, Ankul, Abiram Pramod, and Jay Kumar shattered the national U20 record, clocking 3 minutes 08.10 seconds, to finish second in heat 3 and qualify for the final round.
In the women's 4x400m relay heats, the Indian quartet of Rujula Amol Bhonsle, Neole Anna Cornelio, Abinaya Rajarajan, and Sudheeksha Vadluri also rewrote the national U20 record, clocking 45.31 seconds but failed to make it to the final by a whisker after finishing ninth overall.
On Thursday night, Pooja Singh rewrote the national U20 women's high jump record to enter the final with a ninth-place finish in the qualification round.
The 17-year-old, who hails from Fatehabad district of Haryana, cleared a height of 1.83m to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall, qualifying for the final to be held on Saturday.
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