Nish Mehta and Srushti Shetty set new meet records

Nish Mehta and Srushti Shetty

Nish Mehta and Srushti Shetty broke meet records to emerge as standout performers on the opening day of the Mumbai Suburban District Athletic Association Annual Championship at Sports Authority of India, Kandivli yesterday.

Long jumper Nish, 17, a student of the Jasudben ML School (Khar), overhauled the previous mark of 6.68 metres by clearing a distance of 6.95 metres to finish first in the boy's U-18 final while Srushti, 15, bettered the 100m mark of 13 seconds with a time of 12.4secs to bag gold.

But despite her winning performance, the Children's Academy (Malad) athlete was unimpressed by her showing. "I was expecting a better timing. I couldn't get my start right and that affected my race," Srushti told mid-day.

Coach Naresh Koduri felt that Srushti could have done better.

"We were expecting a time of 12 seconds but due to the inclement weather, she couldn't do it. But that is no excuse," said Koduri, who has been training her for the last five years.

Srushti, a national gold medal-winner in the U-14 100m in 2017, is currently training for the U-20 World Athletics Championships to be held in Kenya next year.

Nish appeared elated to achieve the feat despite suffering a sprained ankle during training recently. "I'm very happy to have broken the meet record. I wasn't expecting it," said Nish.

Later in the day, Nish finished second in the U-18 100m event.

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