Participants at the boys’ Under-18 pole vault and the girls’ Under-18 hammer throw at JRD Tata Sports Complex. Pictures by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Sept. 2: Tamil Nadu emerged as the overall champions in the 20th National Inter-zonal Junior Athletics Championship that concluded at the JRD Tata Sports Complex today.

Uttar Pradesh clinched the first runner-up slot and Haryana bagged the third position.

Tamil Nadu pocketed 54 medals — 23 gold, 20 silver and 11 bronze — during the three-day meet while Uttar Pradesh claimed 34 with 15 gold, 11 silver and 8 bronze.

Haryana pocketed 12 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze which tallied their total count of medals at 35.

Though Uttar Pradesh could grab less number of medals than Haryana but their 15 gold against the latter’s 12 made all the difference.

Five national records were set on the concluding day of the championship.

Kanika Kumari of New Delhi set a national mark in the girls’ Under-18 hammer throw with a distance of 50.46m. The youngster broke the earlier record (50.06m) of Rajasthan’s Manju Bala.

Two national records were created in the boys’ Under-18 pole vault thanks to the Uttar Pradesh athletes.

Umesh Kumar leapt a height of 4.25m and pocketed the gold. While teammate Parminder Kumar managed 4.20m with a better leap than the earlier record setter Virender Singh of Gujarat. Singh’s record was also 4.20m at the same championship.

Kerala’s Arun S. Kumar and Rambir Singh of Haryana also set new records in boys’ Under-18 octathlon. The former took the gold by garnering 54.58 points while the latter finished second with 53.39 points.

A. Mubarak was the previous record setter with 52.44 points in his kitty.

Syed Matloob Hashmi, the secretary general of Jharkhand Olympic Association, chief of sports department of Tata Steel and senior officials of Jharkhand Athletics Association (JAA) Sanjeeva Singh were present during the prize distribution ceremony.