Representative Image: Nitin Gupta became the first Indian race walker to break the 19-minute barrier in the junior men’s 5,000m race-walk. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Three national junior records highlighted the second day of the National Junior (U-20) Athletics Federation Competition here on Saturday.

On a day when several athletes scaled new heights, Army’s Asian junior silver medallist Nitin Gupta set a new benchmark in the men’s U20 5,000m race walk.

Gupta became the first Indian race walker to break the 19-minute barrier in the junior men’s 5,000m race walk. On his way to gold, he clocked 18:54.37, lowering his own national junior record of 19:24.48 set last year in Patna.

His performance on Saturday was also better than the meet record at the Asian U-20 Athletics Championships.

Uttar Pradesh long jumper Shahnavaz Khan also entered his name in the record books, while Kerala’s talented sprinter Mohammed Ashfaq hogged the limelight by breaking the national junior record in the men’s 400m.

Ranjana Yadav of Madhya Pradesh also improved the national junior record in the women’s 5,000m race walk. Her gold-winning time was 23:22.12. The previous record of 23:43.58 had been set by Manisha last year in Bhubaneswar.

Away from the distance events, the men’s 400m was the most exciting track race on day two of the competition. Of the eight finalists, six crossed the finish line inside the Asian junior qualification mark of 47.53 seconds.

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But it was Kerala’s Ashfaq who grabbed the spotlight by breaking the national junior record. His winning time of 46.05 seconds was better than Amoj Jacob’s junior national record of 46.26 seconds set in 2017.

The field was strong in the women’s 400m. Seven of the eight finalists bettered the Asian junior qualification mark of 55.99 seconds. Neeru Pathak of NCOE Trivandrum won gold in 54.31 seconds.

Tamil Nadu pole vaulter Kavinraja S, who won gold, also improved his national mark to 5.12m. His previous junior national record was 5.11m.

At the end of the day, Shahnavaz produced a massive jump of 8.23m, improving the national junior record of 8.20m set by Murali Sreeshankar in 2018.

Published on Apr 25, 2026