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State junior meet from today

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Top flight juniors from nearly 16 districts in Karnataka will test their talent on the newly laid out Sree Kanteerava stadium tracks as the 25th edition of the State junior athletic championship gets underway here from Tuesday.

The three-day meet should produce some interesting results given the track and also the fact that the junior Nationals is just about two weeks away at Warangal, starting November 17. The championship will see action in the under 14, under 16, under 18 and under 20 sections for both boys and girls.

Nirupama Sunderraj has been Karnataka’s spearhead in the last few seasons and this year too the wiry girl is expected to hog the limelight in the under 18 category.

“But the lack of adequate practice on the synthetic surface has been a bother. With the stadium tracks being relaid there was no alternate facility, barring SAI South Centre at Kengeri, for the girls to train. Most of the training was thus gone through on the tar roads outside the stadium,” said V.R. Beedu, the coach here.

Over 1,100 athletes are expected to vie for honours and with the Asian Junior championship slated for next year many would stake a claim for a berth in the Indian camp.

Dakshina Kannada once again is expected to field a strong team and steal the team honours though the newly formed Bangalore Urban will pose a stiff challenge.

Earlier, the much awaited inauguration of the newly laid track was finally gone through with a formal pooja performed on Monday morning with former Olympian Kenneth Powel doing the honours.

“The three-day State junior athletics championship is set to get underway on these tracks on Tuesday and it was mandatory for us to get the inauguration done” said Satyanarayana, the Karnataka Athletic Association (KAA) secretary.

With the political crisis in the State posing a poser there has been pressure from the Government to put off the inauguration function.

“We have performed the pooja and will go ahead with our programme for the next three days. They can have a ‘large scale’ opening as and when they want,” said the State secretary.

The stadium was closed to the athletes on April 27 this year for relaying the tracks and even though everything was in place by September the officials dragged their feet in throwing open the facility for the local athletes.

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