Nagpur: Middle-distance runners from KF Foundation and a small-town discus thrower delivered as Nagpur athletes dominated the Day 2 proceedings in the 40th Maharashtra State Junior championship at Dervan, Ratnagiri, winning as many as three gold and a couple of silver and bronze medals on Friday.
Kashish Bhagat in Ratnagiri
In the U-20 girls’ 400-metre race, Kashish Bhagat clocked 56.57 seconds to clinch the gold medal by a comfortable margin. Pune’s Mansi Bharekar (58.34s) and Krishnali Jagtap (59.06s) won the silver and bronze respectively.Kashish’s KF Foundation club-mate Pranay Upase won the second gold medal for Nagpur when he won the U-20 boys’ 1,500-metre race in a photo finish with Kolhapur’s Sangram Dhangar. Pranay clocked 4.00.52 seconds for the gold medal while Sangram gave a timing of 4.00.86 seconds to finish second. Prithviraj Powar (4.01.01s) won the bronze medal.
Kaushik Chaudhary in Ratnagiri
The third gold medal for Nagpur was pocketed by Yash Bhute, a village boy from Kelwad of Saoner taluka. Yash, an athlete from Madhav Sporting Club, won the U-20 discus throw event when he covered a distance of 43.56 metres. Buldhana’s Yashovardhan Solanke (43.53m) and Aurangabad’s Sarthak Sakat (39.82m) completed the podium finish.
Abhimanyu Kushwah in Ratnagiri
In the U-18 girls’ 1,000-metre race, Janhavi Bawane won the silver medal with a timing of 3.06.39 seconds. She lost the gold medal marginally to Pune’s Divya Ghodekar (3.06.16s). In the U-20 boys’ shot put event, KF Foundation’s Abhimanyu Kushwah won the silver medal with a throw of 17.58 metres. He fell short of Pune’s Aryan Satpute (17.59m).
Yash Bhute in Ratnagiri
In the U-18 boys’ 1,000-metre race, KF Foundation’s Kaushik Chaudhary won the bronze medal with a timing of 2.31.14 seconds.The U-18 girls’ medley relay team of Nagpur won the bronze medal when the quartet, Purva Bante, Janavi Bawane, Kasti Meshram and Aastha Wagh, completed the race in 2.28.71 seconds. Mumbai City (2.22.39s) and Pune (2.23.40s) won the gold and silver medals respectively.
Janhavi Bawane in Ratnagiri
Kashish, Pranay and Kaushik train under the guidance of Gajanan Thakre, while Janhavi practices under Ravindra Tong and Umesh Naidu. Yash trains with Sadanand Kalambe.
