World U20 Athletics Championships: Aarti clinches bronze in women's 10000m race walk event

LIMA: Aarti clinched a bronze medal in the women's 10000m race walk event with a national U20 record time to open India's medal tally account in the World U20 Athletics Championships.

The 17-year-old clocked a timing of 44:39.99s to secure a podium finish on the penultimate day of the Athletics Championships. Aarti bettered the national record of 47:21.04s that she previously registered in March this year at the National Federation Cup U20 Championships in Lucknow.

China's race walkers Zhuoma Baima (43:26.60) and Meiling Chen (44:30.67) walked away with the gold and silver medals, respectively.

This isn't the only national record that has been broken in the ongoing World Athletics U-20 Championships. Pooja Singh broke the U20 women's national record in the high jump event. With a leap of 1.83m, Pooja rewrote the U20 women's national record to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall in the event.

Steeplechaser Sharuk Khan set up a new U-20 national record in men's 3000m steeplechase as he completed the race with a timing of 8:45.12s. The World Athletics U20 Championships 2024 in Lima is being held from August 28 to 31, with India fielding 43 Indian athletes. The contingent comprises 23 men and 20 women for the four-day track and field competition.

India's team for World Athletics U20 Championships 2024: Men: Bapi Hansda (400m, 4x400m relay), Jay Kumar (400m, 4x400m relay), Sahil Khan (800m), Hariharan Kathiravan (110m hurdles), Nayan Pradip Sarde (110m hurdles), Murad Kallubhai Simran (400m hurdles), Karthika Raja Arumugam (400m hurdles), Sharuk Khan (3000m steeplechase), Ranvir Ajay Singh (3000m steeplechase), Himanshu (10000m race walk), Sachin (10000m race walk), Mohd Atta Sazid (long jump), Dev Kumar Meena (pole vault), Siddharth Choudhary (shot put), Anurag Singh Kaler (shot put), Ritik (discus throw), Prateek (hammer throw), Dipanshu Sharma (javelin throw), Rohan Yadav (javelin), M Jayaram Dondapati (100m), Ankul (4x400m relay), Rihan Chaudhary (4x400m, mixed relay), Abhiram Pramod (4x400m relay)

Women: Unnathi Aiyappa (200m,100m hurdles), Neeru Pathak (200m, 400m, 4x400m relay), Anushka Dattatray Kumbhar (400m, 4x400m relay), Laxita Sandilea (800m/1500m), Ekta Dey (3000m steeplechase), Shreeya Rajesh (400m hurdles), Aarti (10000m race walk), Nikita Kumari (discus throw), Amanat Kamboj (discus throw), Tamanna (shot put), Pooja Singh (high jump), Pavana Nagaraj (long jump), Abinaya Rajarajan (100m, 4x100m relay), Sudheeksha Vadluri (4x100m relay), Neole Anna Cornelio (4x100m relay), Rujula Amol Bhonsle (4x100m relay), Siya Abhijit Sawant (4x100m relay), Sandramol Sabu (4x400m relay, mixed 4x400m relay), Kanista Teena Maria Deva Shekhar (4x400m relay), Shravani Sachin Sangle (4x400m, mixed 4x400m relay).