Munita Prajapati sets national record for U20 women's 10000m race walk at National Junior Athletics Championships

Guwahati: Uttar Pradesh’s Munita Prajapati created a national record in the under-20 women’s 10000m race walk event on way to winning a gold on the penultimate day of the 36th National Junior Athletics Championships at the Sarusajai Stadium on Tuesday. Prajapati clocked 47 minutes 53.58 seconds to erase the earlier national record of 48:25.90, held by Reshma Patel, and became the first Indian under-20 woman race walker to clock a sub-48 minute time over the distance. Munita Prajapati, a 19-year-old from Varanasi, had finished third in the same event in the Federation Cup Junior U-20 Athletics Championships last month in Bhopal, where Patel had won gold with a time of 48:25.90. Uttar Pradesh girl Khyati Mathur’s show at the under-18 high jump pit also caught the eye. Having recovered from a knee injury, the Meerut girl produced a personal best leap of 1.77m to win the gold medal.

#MunitaPrajapati of Uttar Pradesh sets a new National Record in 10000m Race Walk (U20) event with a time of
47:53.58. The previous record was set by Reshma Patel (48:25.90) earlier this year at the Junior Federation Cup in Bhopal. pic.twitter.com/94l5IDEo6C

— Khelo India (@kheloindia) February 9, 2021

Training at NIS Patiala over the past couple of months, she was confidence personified and added the girls’ under-18 gold to the under-16 titles that she won in 2016 (1.62m) and 2017 (1.63m). Having surfaced in the 2015 National Inter-District Junior Athletics Meet in Visakhapatnam, where she cleared 1.44m to win the under-14 event, Mathur kept improving her performance. For years, her father Vishal Mathur would help her by tracking high jump videos on YouTube and after proper training, she was able to make her mark on the national stage once again.