Bengaluru: In an individual sport like athletics, where personal brilliance takes precedence over team strengths, ask a coach from Kerala to name his top athlete and the well-rehearsed answer is, “all are good.“
Few states in the country can boast of an assortment of talent, which is wellpackaged like in Kerala. Be it the track or field events, their dominance is supreme. Over the years, the medals and trophies which they have won in abundance has been a testimony to their talent. Hence it's hardly a surprise that Kerala start firm favourites at the Junior National athletics Championships which gets under way at the Sree Kanteerava stadium from Tuesday .
As many as 1800 athletes from across the country will be in the fray for top honours in four age group categories, viz U-14, U-16, U-18 and U-20.
In a contingent numbering over 150, it's hard to pick out performers but the star attraction from the Kerala team is half-miler Jessy Joseph.
Jessy, a prodigy of Indian athletics legend P.T. Usha's School of Athletics, has been in fine form having timed an impressive 2:08.38 en route to gold at the South Asian junior athletics championships at Ranchi last month. Another athlete to watch out is long distance runner P.U.
Chitra, who has been a consistent performer this season. Home hopes on Harshith Meanwhile, the medal hopes for Karnataka will rest on hurdler Meghana Shetty and high jumper Harshith S, both of whom will compete in the U-20 category .
Karnataka's golden girl Meghana, like Jessy, comes into the competition on a high, having won the top spoils in the 100M at Ranchi.
The student of St.Joseph's Commerce College has been unstoppable this season having swept most of the competitions. In Ranchi she clocked an impressive timing of 14.54 seconds and will look to continue with her winning streak in her backyard.
The dominant Harshith, who scaled a gold-winning 2.08 metres at the State meet, will look to repeat his performance from the 2011 nationals. In the U-18 category that year, Harshith had cleared a height of 2.17 metres, which is a season best even in the senior category .
While the focus will be on the seniors, especially the U-20 section, a young athlete who could showcase his potential from the home side is S. Lokesh.
The 13-year-old, standing tall at 5'9“ has been clearing the 6M-mark in the U14 long jump regularly . The only factor that can keep the teenager from gunning for gold will be fatigue as he has just returned from the State schools meet in Shimoga on Monday evening, after claiming a gold medal with a record to boot.
