Three athletes create history on opening day of Bengal State Athletics meet

KOLKATA: Three meet records were set on the opening day of the State Athletics Championships at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Eastern regional centre in the city here on Thursday.

Jalpaiguri’s Tanushri Mahalder set a meet record in the women’s U-20 javelin throw clearing 43.37 metres thereby erasing Abha Khatua’s 41.03m mark set in 2013. Saswati Ghosh bettered Dipti Rajbanshi’s 9.23m throw in 2024 to pick up gold in girls’ U-16 shot put event clearing a distance of 10.46m while Dablu Roy of Jalpaiguri emerged champions in men’s U-23 triple jump clearing 15.29 metres betting his own 15.22m mark set in 2024 to create another record.

In the girls U-16 long jump, Priya Biswas equalled a championship mark with a leap of 4.03 metres set by Obami Murmu in 2024.

Sourav Saha of the East Bengal Club, sprinted to victory in the men’s 100m final in 10.91s as Tamashree Mishra, also of red and gold brigade, clinched the women’s title finishing in 12.20s.Some 1423 athletes from across Bengal are taking part in 39 events in the championship, making it one of the largest editions of the state meet.

The championship has brought together 818 men and 605 women athletes.Olympian Jyotirmoyee Sikdar and Arjuna award winner Saraswati Saha were present at the venue to encourage the athletes from 19 district associations, three subdivisions, 10 affiliated clubs and four departmental teams — Kolkata Police, West Bengal Police, Income Tax and Central Excise.