Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: Karnataka's Deekshita headlined an impressive day for state athletes at the 4th Indian Open U-23 Athletics Competition in Patna with a gold medal in the women's 400 metres hurdles event.
Deekshita clocked a time of 1:00.40 en-route to victory. Tushar Vasant Bhekane and Lokesh K won silver and bronze in the men's 800m event, finishing behind Rajasthan's Shakeel. Lokesh crossed the line in 1:51.97, while Lokesh clocked 1:53.23.
Deesha Ganapathy bagged bronze in the women's long jump event with a best effort of 5.86m. Sudeep won silver in the men's high jump with 2.11m, finishing behind Kerala's Jomon Joy, who set a new meet record with a 2.17m leap.
Best athlete
Odisha sprinter Animesh Kujur set a new meet record en-route to victory in the 200m dash final to add to his 100m gold as he was named the best male athlete of the Indian Open U-23 Competition on the concluding day here.
Kujur clocked 20.65 seconds to win the yellow metal, bettering his own earlier meet record of 20.87 seconds set in 2023.
On Sunday, the 21-year-old Kujur had clocked 10.40 seconds to win the 100m dash gold.
Gujarat's Devyaniba Zala, who had won gold in 400m race with a time of 53.53 seconds on Saturday, was adjudged the best female athlete of the meet.
Maharashtra's Sudeshna Hanmant Shivankar had emerged as the fastest female athlete, winning the 100m race with a time of 11.76 seconds.