Punjab sprinter Gurindervir Singh of Punjab clocked 10.47 seconds in the U-20 100m to set a junior national record at the 16th Federation Cup National Junior Athletics Championships in Coimbatore, here today.
Singh shattered the old mark of 10.57 seconds set by Augustine Yeshudas of Kerala in 2013. Gurindervir, the gold medallist at the Youth Asian Championships last year, also improved on his personal best of 10.69 seconds.
Gurindervir, who was the reigning 100m champion in the U-18 category, finished ahead of the current U-20 national champion Akash Kumar of Uttar Pradesh, who recorded a time of 10.65 seconds to win silver.
The bronze went to Prajwal Mandanna who clocked 10.66 seconds. Reigning Federation Cup winner Nuzrat could only finish 7th with a time of 11.03 seconds.
Sapna Kumari of Jharkhand won the U20 women's 100m hurdles with a new meet record of 13.78 seconds.
The 19-year-old was well clear of the old mark of 14.04seconds set by Mukti Saha in 2001. Kumari's mark was just short of the national record of 13.59 set by Gayathri Govindarajan in 2010.
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Kumari finished well ahead of the field at Coimbatore. Pragyan Sahu of Odisha took silver with 14.60 seconds while Nandhini Kongan of Tamil Nadu claimed bronze with a time of 14.68 seconds.
Olympian Jisna Mathews broke little sweat as she eased to the women's U-20 400m gold medal, winning with a time of 54.73 seconds. While Mathews' time was well short of the national record of 53.00 seconds set 23-years ago, it was more than enough to beat the field. The silver went to Haryana's Rachna, who clocked 55.49 seconds while Subha Venkatesh of Tamil Nadu clocked 56.19 seconds to take bronze.
Asian Youth champion Sanjay Kumar too won the 10km walk as expected, clocking a time of 42:09:44 seconds to set a new meet record.
Asian Youth Championship silver medalist Ashish Bhalothia also didn't have to push himself hard as he won the gold in the shot put event with an effort of 17.89m.