Punjab's Devansh Jagga on Friday created a new national record in the boys' under-16 discus throw event at the 37th AFI National Junior Athletics Championships at the Athletics Stadium in the SAI Regional Centre in Guwahati on Friday.
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Devansh Jagga, a Class 10 student from the border town of Fazilka, broke the meet and national record four times. He started with a throw of 55.02m and then continuously improved the record by throwing 55.03m in the third attempt. He threw 55.98m in the fifth, and 57.01m in the last attempt. On this occasion, Devansh broke the record of Delhi's Ram Narayan Maurya. Maurya had made a record of 53.17 meters last year.
"Though I got the national record with my first throw, I was not satisfied with the 55m effort. I had a 58.32m in the state meet and was consistently passing the 56m mark in training. It was only on the last try that my technique fell in place, and I was able to get a 57m throw," Devansh said.
Coached by his father Sunil Kumar Jagga, who taught him the basics of discus throw. And with some long-distance help from coach Gursimran Sandhu, Devansh relied on his flexibility and technique to dominate the competition despite not having the stereotypical strong frame. Moments later, Goyat effected a magnificent raid to reduce the Mumbai side to just one player on the mat. The Puneri Paltan tackled Guman Singh and inflicted an All-Out to take a massive lead at 25-20 in the 32nd minute.
Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh's long jumpers Shaili Singh and Nidhi won the title with new meet records in women's under-20 and under-18 respectively. Shaili broke Renu's meet mark of 6.22m, set in 2018, with a winning leap of 6.38m on her third attempt. While Nidhi improved on the record of 6.10m, set 21 years ago by Ruta Patkar. Nidhi set the record with a 6.12m effort on her second try.