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  Sports   In Other sports  17 Oct 2018  Youth Olympics: Suraj walks away with silver

Youth Olympics: Suraj walks away with silver

PTI
Published : Oct 17, 2018, 1:32 am IST
Updated : Oct 17, 2018, 1:32 am IST

Panwar won the stage 2 competition by clocking 20 minutes and 35.87 seconds on Monday night but finished second overall.

Suraj Panwar shows his silver medal from the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
 Suraj Panwar shows his silver medal from the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Buenos Aires: India’s Suraj Panwar clinched a silver in men’s 5,000m race walk event in the ongoing Youth Olympic Games to open the country’s medal account in athletics here.

Panwar won the stage 2 competition by clocking 20 minutes and 35.87 seconds on Monday night but finished second overall.

In a new format, there are no finals in track and field (with the exception of 4km cross-country) in the Youth Olympics and each event is held twice, with results from both rounds counting towards the final standings.

The 17-year-old Panwar had finished second in the first stage in 20.23.30s, behind Patin Oscar of Ecuador.

Oscar, who finished second in Stage 2, won the gold with timings of 20:13.69s and 20:38.17s.

Panwar’s total time of 40:59.17s was over seven minutes slower than Oscar’s 40:51.86s. Puerto Rico’s Jan Moreu finished third to claim the bronze.

This is India’s first athletics medal in this edition and third overall. Arjun (men’s discus throw) and Durgesh Kumar (men’s 400m hurdles) had won a silver each in the inaugural edition in 2010.

“It’s a great feeling. I am very happy to have won a medal. I had put in a lot of hard work for the Games. It is my first medal for India,” Panwar said after winning the silver medal.

“My next target is to better my performance here and win a medal in the senior level also,” he added.

Archers Akash, Himani advance
Meanwhile, Indian archers Akash Malik and Himani Kumari kept themselves in the medal hunt, advancing to their pre-quarterfinal rounds of their respective events.

The 16-year-old Akash, who trains at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, showed courage to down Canadian Benjamen Lee in the shoot-off of his round one contest in the recurve cadet men’s individual event.

Trailing 3-5 after fourth set, Akash shot two perfect 10s in the fifth set to level 5-5 and take the battle into the shoot-off where both shot 9-all but the Indian was adjudged winner with his arrow closer to the centre.

Akash will face Jose Manuel Solera of Spain for a place in the quarterfinals.

Himani had an easy first round outing, cruising past Jil Walter of Samoa 7-1 to set up a last-16 clash against Catalina Gnoriega of the USA in he women’s recurve cadet individual event.

India’s boxing challenge ends
India’s boxing challenge ended at the very first hurdle after former world champion Jyoti Gulia (51kg) lost her quarterfinal bout to Italy’s Martina La Piana here.

Gulia was the lone Indian boxer to qualify for the Games owing to her world title and lost in a unanimous 0-5 verdict to the Italian on Monday night.

The 17-year-old Indian from Haryana was expected to do well at the event given that she was coming off a gold medal winning performance at the Silesian Open in Gliwice, Poland last month.

India’s maiden and only set of medals in the Youth Olympics’ boxing competition came in the inaugural edition of 2010.

Shiva Thapa and Vikas Krishan delivered a silver and a bronze medal respectively, which remain India’s best performance. While Shiva won his silver in the 54kg category, Vikas finished with a bronze in the 60kg division.

In 2014, the best that India managed in boxing was Gaurav Solanki’s fourth-place finish.

 

Tags: youth olympic games, suraj panwar