Sport - Athletics

Mayookha equals National record

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

Mayookha Johny.

KOCHI: On Saturday, Kannur’s Mayookha Johny produced a long jump that happily proclaimed that the country would be watching her very closely over the next few years.

Just 19, the Thalassery SAI athlete leaped to 6.25 metres and equalled the five-year-old under-20 girls’ National record of Maharashtra’s Ruta Patkar at the Kerala State senior and junior inter-club athletic championship at the Maharaja’s College Stadium here.

Mayookha’s effort also easily broke the three-year-old State under-20 record of Resmi Bose.

She also holds the National mark in the girls’ triple jump.

For the last couple of years, Kerala girls — including Mayookha and the promising M.K. Prajusha — had been hunting for ways to cross the six-metre mark in long jump.

And after going past the psychological barrier last year, they have started producing the big ones.

Thiruvananthapuram’s Resmi Bose, who lost her under-20 record, later shattered the meet record while winning the women’s gold with 6.22m.

For the last 10 years or so, four men – Najeeb Mohammed, Suresh Raj, Biju Thomas and P.Biju - shared the record as the State Championship’s fastest.

But this evening, Kollam’s S. Arunjith pushed them by the wayside and wrote his name in the glittering book.

He clocked 10.4 seconds in the heats to break the record but was a trifle slower while winning the gold in 10.5 secs.

P.T. Usha’s trainee Aswathy Mohanan also caught the eye while racing to the under-16 girls 400m gold in a record-breaking 57.2 secs.

The records (Senior State): Men: S. Arunjith (Klm, 100m, 10.4 secs in heats, OR 10.6, 1984); Bibin Mathew (Klm, 400m, 47.4, equalled record).