Kids up to speed

The victorious Himanshu Panchal (left) and Ada Pathan during their 100 metres sprint in the MSSA Inter-School Athletics Championship at Marine Lines yesterday. Pics/Sameer Markande

Himanshu Panchal, 15, of St Dominic Savio High School (Andheri) and Ada Pathan, 14, of Vasant Vihar High School (Thane) emerged the fastest boy and girl athlete respectively on the first day of the MSSA 129th Annual Inter-School Athletics Championship at the University Sports Pavilion, Marine Lines on Monday.

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Dominic Savio's Himanshu ran strongly to win the 100 metres gold in 11.64 secs. He beat a strong challenge from Md Naym Shaikh of St Xavier's High School (Fort) who took the silver in 11.80 secs and Kardam Gandhi of Utpal Shanghvi Global School (Juhu) who settled for the bronze in 11.88 secs. Himanshu has been successfully participating in the MSSA meets from the age of eight. Running the 100, 200 and 400m events, he has won 15 gold medals.

On the other hand, Ada, whose pet event is the long jump, was making her debut in short sprints. With her smooth powerful strides she surprised the rest of the field, charging unchallenged to the finish line in an impressive time of 12.93 secs to pocket the gold. Kadambari Shinde of Thane Police School and Chitra Bhatin of The JB Petit High School (Fort) claimed the silver and bronze medals.

In the two-lap races, Sanisska Sawla of Utpal Shanghvi Global School (Juhu), with a time of 2:33.99 secs, clinched the girls' U-16 gold. Meera Timori of Childrens Academy (Ashok Nagar, Kandivli) led from the start to win the girls U-14 gold in 2:44.11 secs.