RFYS Athletics National Championship crosses the finish line

On 16th November, Mumbai witnessed a befitting end to the three-day long RFYS Athletics National Championship 2018-19.

On 16th November, Mumbai witnessed a befitting end to the three-day long RFYS Athletics National Championship 2018-19. The journey which started in Chennai and Lucknow and spanned for over two months, made its final stop at the Sports Authority of India, Mumbai, where participants from 14 cities gathered to ply their trade and claim the National Championship honour. Present among the athletes was Former Olympian and National Record Holder in High Jump, Sahana Kumari who cheered the athletes on the track.

The final stride

The event that started the proceedings was the 5000m College Boys Final wherein Santosh Yadav, from Kolkata’s Barrackpore Rastraguru Surendranath College stood as the first gold medalist of the day after finishing the race in 15:33:15 minutes. As the day progressed, the level of performances upped, starting from the College Girls Long Jump final where Harshini Saravanan was way ahead of her competition as she bagged the Gold with a mark of 6.19m. After bagging the Silver in the Junior Boys 2000m final on the 2nd day, Parvej Khan returned to the arena with gold on his mind and gold was what he got. Clocking 2:05:61min, he raced to the finish line convincingly and ended his RFYS Athletics campaign by being first on the podium in the 800m Junior Boys Final. At the end of a race, someone has to win and lose. Kudos to all the athletes who made it this far and completed their goal of being a RFYS National Champion. Those who couldn’t make it all the way should feel proud of their performance and aim to be back again next year. To check out the complete list of winners from day 3, head over to Athletics Results

In a league of their own

Winning a gold medal is a great achievement, but there were a few athletes who didn’t settle for just one. Six athletes from across the country bagged two gold medals in as many events and set a unique benchmark in RFYS, they are: Amlan Borgohain - 100m and 200m College Boys, Sweety Verma – 200m and 100m Junior Girls, Kishanu Das – 200m and 100m Sub-Junior Boys, Mohd Samad – 400m and 600m Sub-Junior Boys, Siya Abhijit Sawant – 100m and 200m Sub-Junior Girls and Manvir Kaur – 100m and 200m College Girls.

The day ended with the dignitaries handing the awards to the best athletes and institutes at the closing ceremony as the crowd present at the Sports Authority of India stadium cheered for their teammates and winners. The dignitaries were Shri Adille Sumariwalla, President, Athletics Federation of India, ex-Olympian, Mr. Jalaj Dani, Director, Reliance Foundation and Mr. Edward Sequeira – Former India Middle-Distance Runner and Arjuna Awardee. While Aravinth E (College Boys) had the most number of points in the best athlete category (1049), MOP Vaishnav College for Women (College Girls) was the best institute with 67.8 points. For more, visit Athletics Leaderboard.

Until Next time…

As RFYS concluded with yet another landmark Athletics tournament, this time reaching out to more athletes and covering more cities, all eyes will now be on the football tournament and the coming few months wherein the National Qualifiers will be played out before it all ends with RFYS Football National Championship.

RFYS Athletics National Championship crosses the finish line