Pooja creates new varsity record in women's 10K race

Patiala: Pooja Varade stole the limelight as she re-wrote the university record en route to winning women's 10,000m gold on the fourth day of the 74th All India Inter-University Athletics Championships here today.

The Pune varsity distance runner left behind her disappointment of failing to defend her 5000m title on the opening day and won the 10000m gold today in a credible 36:04.64 that shattered Calicut University's defending champion M D Thara's last year's time of 36:22.35.

Thara not only lost her record but also a podium finish as she could get only a fourth place for her 36:46.38 effort today. Harpreet Kaur of Punjabi University (36:08.37) and Rohini Raut of R T M Nagpur (36:09.22) came second and third respectively.

In yet another final of the morning at the Punjabi University tracks, Karamjit Kaur from hosts University returned a time of 24:54.33 to win the gold. Dharmender Kumar of Rajasthan threw the javelin to 72.63m for the gold while Emitha Baby from Mahatma Gandhi University (Kottayam) scaled 3.10m to win women's pole vault.

Punjabi University's Navjot Singh pulled off a surprise as he pushed favourite and South Asian Federation junior champion Mohammed Salahuddin (Bharathiar University) to second spot in triple jump by just 3 cm (15.40 to 15.37m).

The hosts also grabbed one more title through heptathlete Purnima Hembram, the Asian junior champion. Bharathiar University got a gold medal in decathlon as R Suren aggregated 6057 points to win a see-saw battle from Rohtak's Ankit Saini by just nine points.