National School Athletics: Kerala lift overall trophy, Kasaragod shot putter sets national record

Kasaragod: Kerala lifted the overall trophy at the 67th National School Athletics Tournament 2023-2024 held at Chandrapur in Maharashtra.

Kerala scored 96 points, winning 11 Gold medals, five Silver medals, and eight Bronze medals, and created a National Record in the shot put, said throw coach Gireesh Kizhake Charalil.
Host Maharashtra came a distant second with 69 points.

"Congratulations to all who contributed to this victory," said Minister for General Education V Sivankutty in a Facebook post. In the last edition of the tournament, Kerala was fourth. "Kerala leapt to the first position this time," he wrote.

The icing on the cake was the National Record-breaking performance of shot putter V S Anupriya, who won bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in May.

At Chandrapur, Anupriya broke the under-18 National Record of 16.56m with a throw of 17.40m on Saturday.

The previous record was set by Haryana's Vidhi, who was the first U-18 athlete to breach the 16-metre mark. Vidhi set the National Record at the 37th AFI National Junior Athletics Championship at Guwahati in November, when she was one month short of turning 18 years old. 

At the Bhopal Khelo India Youth Games in February, when Vidhi was 18 years and two months old, she threw a distance of 17.07m.

"That is where Anupriya's performance stands out. She became the first U-18 athlete to breach the 17-metre mark. She threw 17.40m when she is six months short of 18 years," said her coach Gireesh. "She was a tigress prowling Chandrapur," he said.

At the Commonwealth Youth Games in August, she won the Silver medal with a throw of 15.62m.

Gireesh's son K C Servan won silver in discus and his other trainee Akhila Raju won silver in the girl's discus throw (44.59m).

Servan has appealed against his result. "He threw 55.33m but the distance was recorded at 54.33m and the beneficiary was an athlete from the host state of Maharashtra," said Gireesh. "We have filed a complaint," he said. The result will be out on Sunday.

Gireesh's training ground at K C Throws Academy is just 1,100 sqft on the banks of Thejaswani River at Kasaragod's Cheruvathur panchayat. He is training 11 young athletes free of cost, and almost all of them finish on the podium in national and international tournaments in their age categories. For years he has been asking the District Administration and the grama panchayat for an airconditioned training ring but to no avail. After Anupriya's National Recording-breaking performance, Gireesh wrote on Facebook: "What else does Kerala need! Our district or panchayat should provide some facilities to KC Throws Academy".