Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], February 12 : The athletics events at the 38th National Games, held in Uttarakhand, concluded on Wednesday, with athletes delivering outstanding performances and setting multiple new records. The final day witnessed intense competition across various events.
Gujarat's Ruchit Mori clinched the gold medal in the men's 400m hurdles with a timing of 50.97 seconds. Punjab's Hardeep (51.02 seconds) and Maharashtra's Rohan Kamble (51.77 seconds) secured the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the women's 400m hurdles, Tamil Nadu's Vithya Ramraj claimed the top spot with a timing of 58.11 seconds. Her teammate Srivardhini S.K. (59.86 seconds) secured silver, while Maharashtra's Neha Dhabale (1:00.52) took home the bronze, as per a press release from 38th National Games.
In the women's shot put event, Punjab's Jasmin Kaur emerged victorious with an impressive throw of 15.97 meters, securing the gold medal. Uttar Pradesh's Vidhi (15.46 meters) won the silver, and Delhi's Srishti Vig (15.46 meters) bagged the bronze.
In the women's 5000m race, Uttarakhand's Ankita claimed the gold medal with a time of 15:56.03 minutes. Maharashtra's Sanjivani Jadhav (15:59.12 minutes) won silver, while her teammate Poonam Sonune (16:53.52 minutes) secured the bronze.
The men's 5000m race saw Himachal Pradesh's Sawan Barwal set a new National Games record, completing the race in 13:45.93 minutes. The previous record of 13:50.05 minutes was held by G. Lakshmanan from Services. Haryana's Gagan Singh (14:00.04 minutes) secured silver, while Madhya Pradesh's Sunil Dawar (14:01.33 minutes) took bronze.
Uttar Pradesh's Sachin Yadav set a new National Games record in the men's javelin throw event with an incredible throw of 84.39 meters, surpassing the previous record of 82.23 meters set by Haryana's Rajendra Singh. Uttar Pradesh's Rohit Yadav (80.47 meters) and Uttarakhand's Vikas Sharma (79.33 meters) won silver and bronze, respectively.
The 4x400m mixed relay event was won by Kerala's team (Manu T.S., Sneha K., Bejoy J., Ansa Babu), who clocked a time of 3:25.35 minutes to clinch the gold medal. Maharashtra's team (Shyamrao Daundkar, Mansi Bharekar, Nikhil Dhake, Aishwarya Mishra) finished in 3:25.66 minutes to secure silver, while Punjab's team (Lovepreet Singh, Twinkle Choudhary, Jagmeet Singh, Kiranpal Kaur) bagged the bronze with a time of 3:26.35 minutes.
Haryana's Poonam set a new National Games record in the women's high jump, clearing 1.84 meters and surpassing the previous record of 1.83 meters set by West Bengal's Swapna Barman in 2022. Tamil Nadu's Gobika K. (1.79 meters) won silver, while Karnataka's Abhinaya S. Shetty (1.77 meters) secured the bronze.
Moreover, the final day of athletics at the 38th National Games witnessed remarkable performances, with athletes setting new records and emerging as rising stars in Indian athletics.