Promising Umred athlete Sandip Gound brought laurels to the region by winning the silver medal in the ongoing 36th National Junior Athletics Championship 2021 being held at the Indira Gandhi Sarusajai Stadium in Guwahati, Assam, on Monday. The annual meet is being conducted by the Athletics Federation of India.
In the 80 metres hurdles finals, Sandip Gound clocked 10.81 seconds to clinch the second spot. The Vidarbha teenager missed the gold medal by a whisker.
Tamil Nadu’s Hariharan Kathiravan claimed the gold medal with a timing of 10.80 seconds. Orissa’s Rajendra Sindhu had to be satisfied with the bronze medal. He took 10.84 seconds to complete the race.
Earlier on Sunday in the 80m hurdles event of the Under-16 boys category, Sandip had finished third in the Heat 1 to secure a place in the semi-finals. However on Monday, Sandip raised his level to bag his maiden medal at the Junior Nationals.
Gound is representing Maharashtra in the Junior Nationals. Prior to the Guwahati meet, Gound had excelled in the State Athletics Meet held at Pune to secure a place in the Maharashtra squad.
Sandip Gound is a member of the Om Sai Sporting Club, Umred and trains under Praful Bele.
Nagpur District Athletics Association (NDAA) secretary Sharad Suryawanshi, NDAA president Gurudev Nagrale, corporator Nagesh Sahare, SJ Anthony, Umesh Naidu, Ramchandra Wani, Shekhar Suryawanshi, Archana Kottewar, Banty Yadav, Dr Vivekanand Singh, Ravindra Tong, Jitendra Ghoradadedkar, Harendra Thakre, Sunil Kapgate, Mangesh Paunikar, Amit Thakur, Chandrabhan Kolte, Vandev Thakre, Brijmohan Singh Rawat, Swapnil Gavali, Kamlesh Hinge, Sachin Hulke and Rajesh Bhute congratulated Sandip for his medal-winning effort at Guwahati.