The second South Asian Junior Athletics Championships was today inaugurated with a colourful opening ceremony at the Birsa Munda Stadium here today.
Jharkhand Governor Dr Syed Ahmed declared the three-day meet open. Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren were among the dignitaries present during the inauguration.
Star athlete from the state, Budhwa Oraon lit the sacred flame. Shakti Solanki, a gold medallist in the inaugural Asian Schools Track and Field meet at Malaysia, was the flag-bearer of the 57-strong Indian team.
The evening's programme commenced with the march past of the participating teams from the South Asian region.
India won the last edition of the championships with 21 gold, 19 silver and 5 bronze medals in 2007 in Colombo.
Apart from Solanki, there are four other champions and three silver medallists from the Asian Schools championships also in the Indian team.
Notable among them are metric milers Mohammed Afsal and P U Chitra, high jumper Swapna Burman and shot putter Meghna Devanga.
Sri Lanka, who are fielding a 40-strong team, is mainly pinning their hopes on their flag-bearer Supun Viraj Randeniya, who won a bronze medal in 110m hurdles during the Asian Junior Championships in Colombo last year.
Further, the challenge from their junior women's side will come from Asian junior champion Siwanthi Kumari Rathnayake, a 400m runner, who surprised everyone with a gold last year besides a silver in Commonwealth Youth Games at Douglas.
