CHENNAI: The first three throws all surpassed the personal best of 73.42m that T Dharanidharan had heading into the National Junior Athletics meet on Tuesday. His initial series read 75.34m, 76.18m and 75.27m as the Tamil Nadu athlete went on to clinch gold in men’s U-20 javelin.This season has been a memorable one for the athlete from Pappanadu in Thanjavur. Hailing from a humble background, with his father being a farmer, he finished a creditable sixth at the World U-20 Championships and is raring to go past the 80m mark next season. “Next season, my aim will be to make the 80m mark,” Dharanidharan said.There was a period when Dharanidharan struggled to even compete in competitions, but now he is among the elite junior javelin throwers in India. His coach, Manikandan, introduced him to javelin and he has been instrumental in his progress.“Our target was to reach 78m, and one of his foul throws was close to that mark. There has been a slight change in his technique, and we need to improve his power. We used to train on a normal ground, but now we have shifted to the synthetic (SDAT) track in Thanjavur, due to which his injuries have reduced,” said Manikandan.TN’s Neil breaks U-18 200 NR:TN’s Neil Samraj broke the U-18 200m national record and secured the top spot, clocking 21.03 seconds. On the opening day of the competition, Neil had surpassed his own NR in men’s 100m. Meanwhile, Sadhana bettered her personal best with 13.22m to take the top spot in women’s U-20 triple jump.TN finished as the overall champions (19 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze) taking into account U-14, U-16, U-18 and U-20 categories.
