Aarti, a 17-year-old Indian athlete, secured a bronze medal in the women’s 10,000m race walk event at the World U-20 Athletics Championships in Lima on Friday, setting a new national record with a time of 44 minutes 39.39 seconds. This achievement marked the beginning of India’s medal tally in the competition, as reported by PTI.
In a league of her own 👑
🇨🇳's Zhuoma Baima rules the 10,000m race walk and clocks an U20 world lead of 43:26.60 on her way to the gold in Lima 👏
🥈 Meiling Chen 🇨🇳
🥉 Aarti 🇮🇳 #WorldAthleticsU20 pic.twitter.com/tAd31he3PS— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 30, 2024
Aarti’s performance surpassed her previous national record of 47:21.04, which she had set in March while winning gold at the National Federation Cup U20 Championships in Lucknow.
The gold and silver medals in the challenging event were claimed by Chinese race walkers Zhuoma Baima, with a time of 43:26.60, and Meiling Chen, who finished at 44:30.67, respectively.
In the men’s 4x400m relay heats, the Indian team of Rihan Chaudhary, Ankul, Abiram Pramod, and Jay Kumar broke the national U20 record by clocking 3 minutes 08.10 seconds. They finished second in heat 3, advancing to the final round.
In another notable performance, Pooja Singh, a 17-year-old from Fatehbad district, Haryana, broke the national U20 women’s high jump record during the qualification round on Thursday night. Pooja, the daughter of a mason, cleared a height of 1.83m, surpassing her previous record of 1.82m, which she set last year in Korea, where she won a silver medal at the Asian U-20 Championships. Her impressive jump earned her a second-place finish in qualification round group B and a ninth-place finish overall, securing her spot in the final scheduled for Saturday.