Maharashtra State Senior Athletics Championship 2019: Nidhi, Diandra bag grand triple golds

Thane athletes continued to rule the roost winning a clutch of gold medals on the second and concluding day of the LIC-69^th Maharashtra State Senior Athletics Championship 2019, at the University Sports Ground, Marine Lines on Wednesday.

Indian junior quarter-miler Nidhi Singh proved to be the one-lap queen winning gold in the women’s 400m, 400m hurdles and later anchoring the Thane quartet to victory in the 4x400m relay to complete a grand treble.

Nidhi’s teammate Diandra Valladares completed a sprint double by adding the 200m gold to the 100m dash she won on the first day. Diandra once again dominated from the gun to cruise to victory in 23.98secs, which was way ahead of her nearest rival Mangiri Revale of Ratnagiri who took silver in 25.22s and the bronze went to Saroj Shetty of Mumbai City in 25.37secs. Diandra also finished with three gold medals having run the final leg in leading Thane to gold in the 4x100m relay.

Nidhi, who was a member of the Indian team which won silver behind hosts Japan in the 2018 Asian Junior Athletics Championship in Gifu, Japan last June, ran quite a strong race but finished in a dismal time of 57.29secs which was much below her personal best of 56.4 secs. Akola’s Soniya Mokal won the silver in 58.87secs and the bronze was claimed by Pune’s Sangeeta Shinde in 59.65secs.

Nidhi later clinched the 400m hurdles clocking a time of 1:04.83secs ahead of Thane’s Damini Pednekar in 1:08.05s and Satara’s Sunita Jadhav claimed the bronze in 1:10.20secs.

She returned to the tracks and fashioned Thane team to victory in the 4x400m relay. Akansha Gawade, Snehal Shinde and Ekta Goulkar ran the first three laps before Nidhi completed the victory.

Thane also won the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay gold medals.

Pune’s Jaykumar Gavde also won a sprint double winning the 200m - 21.48s, while  Akshay Khot and Ajit Singh both of Thane won the silver and bronze.

Results (all finals) -

Women 200m: 1. Diandra Valladares (Thane) - 23.98s, 2. Mangiri Revale (Ratnagiri) – 25.22s, 3. Saroj Shetty (Mumbai City) – 25.37s.

Men 200m: 1. Jaykumar Gavde (Pune) - 21.48s, 2. Akshay Khot (Thane) - 21.75s, 3. Ajit Singh (Thane) - 21.90s.

Women 400m: 1. Nidhi Singh (Thane) – 57.29s, Soniya Mokal (Akola) - 58.87s, 3. Sangeeta Shinde (Pune) – 59.65s.

Men 400m: 1. Baljeet (Pune) – 48.43s, 2. Rahul Kadam (Mumbai Suburb) – 48.59s, 3. Yogesh Meher (Palghar) – 49.12s.

Women 3000m Steeplechase: 1. Komal Jagadale (Nashik) 10:35.37s, 2. Vaishnavi Sawant (Satara) – 11:30.47s, 3. Priyanka Chavarkar (Pune) – 11:53.38s.

Men 3000m Steeplechase: 1. Aditya Bhosale (Satara) – 9:39.67s, 2. Akash Pardeshi (Pune) -  9:42.46s, 3. Adesh Yadav (Nasik) – 9:44.10s.

Men 800m: 1. Chaitanya Holgare (Nashik) – 1:55.26s, 2. Abhijeet Hirkud (Nashik) – 1:56. 01s, 3. Nishant Joshi (Pune) – 1:56.63s.

Women 400m Hurdles: 1. Nidhi Singh (Thane) – 1:04.83s, 2. Damni Pednekar (Thane) – 1:08.05s, 3. Sunita Jadhav (Satara) – 1:10.20s.

Men 400m Hurdles: 1. Krishnat Patil (Kolhapur) – 54.82s, Bhushan Patil (Kolhapur) – 55.82s, 3. Ganesh Shinde (Amravati) – 56.07s.

Women 4x400m Relay: 1. Thane (Akansha Gawade, Snehal Shinde, Ekta Goulkar, Nidhi Singh) – 3:59.30s, 2. Pune (Sangeeta Shinde, Rutika Pansare, Siddhi Jadhav, Yamuna Ladkat) – 4:00.20s, 3. Nagpur (Ruth Charles, Bhargavi Meshram, Sakhi Shende, Yamini Thakre) - 4:27.18s.

Women 4x100m Relay: 1. Thane (Kritika Devadiga, Ekta Goulkar, Sanika Nate, Diandra Valladares) - 51.29s, 2. Pune – 54.38s, 3. Sangli - 57.61s.

Men 4x100m Relay: 1. Thane (Akshay Wadkar, Zaid Khot, Kshitij Bhoite, Preet Surve) - 42.29s, 2. Mumbai City - 42.62s, 3. Akola - 43.42s.

Women Triple Jump: 1. Pragati Sankapal (Kolhapur) – 11.23m, 2. Poornima Marne (Pune) – 10.57m, 3. Ashmita Dhaware (Nagpur) – 10.49m.

Men Triple Jump: 1. Jay Shah (Mumbai Suburb) – 15.30m, 2. Krishna Singh (Mumbai Suburb) – 14.88m, 3. Anilkumar Sahoo (Mumbai city) 14.82m.

Women Javelin Throw: 1. Geeta Shinde (Pune) 39.29m, 2. Pratiksha Sarafdar (Mumbai City) 38.08m, 3. Sakshi Parmar (Mumbai Suburb) – 37.69m.

Men Javelin Throw: 1. Jaideep Singh (Pune) – 69.65m, 2. Uttam Patil (Sangli) – 69.47m, Anil Ghungase (Aurangabad) – 66.66m.