Junior National Athletics Meet begins today

GUWAHATI: The 36th edition of the National Junior Athletics Championship will kick off tomorrow here at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will inaugurate the meet which will be also attended by Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of India Ravinder Chaudhry as guest of honour.

Altogether 1637 participants from different parts of the country will vie for honours in 145 events. With 159 athletes, Haryana will be the largest contingent this time, edging out Tamil Nadu (150). Karnataka (142), Rajasthan (110) and Uttar Pradesh (107) are the other States that will field more than 100 athletes in the competition. The strength of Assam contingent is 78. Most of the outstation athletes had already arrived in the city.

It would be the first major athletics competition in the country after the COVID-19 break.

The five-day championship will be held in four age categories: U-14, 16, 18 and 20 for both boys and girls. With World Athletics U-20 Championships in Nairobi, slated for August, and the fourth Asian Youth (U-18) Athletics Championships in Kuwait in October this year, the greater limelight may well be on the two groups of athletes competing in the under-20 and under-18 categories.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today visited the venue to oversee the final preparations of the competition. He said, "My sincere thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji for empowering us to start sports competitions in the country after a long gap due to Covid-19 pandemic. My best wishes to all the young athletes who are here in Guwahati for this competition and I thank AFI for giving us this opportunity to host this event."

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