Double delight for Akshaya, Shashank

Akshaya Iyer won the women’s 100m and 200m with record-breaking efforts and Shashank Shinde claimed the men’s sprint double on the fourth day of the 42nd Bombay YMCA State Level Athletic championships at the University Stadium, Marine Lines here on Saturday. Both the athletes are from Thane’s Achievers Sports Club so it was a double celebration for them.

Though Shashank had earlier missed the record in the 100m, he did well to break the old 200m record of 21.8 secs by clocking 21.6 secs. However, the women’s 200m run proved to be the day’s most enthralling  event as apart from  Akshaya, her teammate Siddhi Hiray (25.5 secs) and Ekta Goulkar (26.2 secs), of Seven Stars too eclipsed the old mark.

On Friday, Akansha Shelar and Vishakha  Salunkhe, both from Mumbai’s Spandan Eco Foundation, in girls under-18 and Anuj Yadav and Rohit Mandavkar in boys under-18 were the star performers. Akansha set the record  when she won the 800m in 2:26.9 secs, thus eclipsing the existing mark of 2:32.4 secs. Even her teammate Vishakha Salunkhe, who followed her home in 2:28.6 secs, too, bettered the existing mark.

In the boys under-18 section, Anuj Yadav from the distant suburb of Virar won  the 400m  under-18 event in 50.9 secs and Rohit Mandavkar from Thane’s Achievers Club took the honours in the 800m event  in 2:03.7 secs. Khar’s Beacon High girl Anoushka Dmenezes sprinting  beautifully took  the 100m gold in 12.8 secs in the girls under-16 section.

Thane girl Nidhi Singh was way  ahead of the  field in the women’s 400m while winning gold in  57.6 secs.  and Aarti Deshmukh from Parel’s Star Athletic club  likewise took the 1,500m gold, clocking 5:18.3 secs.