Dubai: Abdul Karim Khir of Dubai National School, Al Barsha, set a national record in the boy’s Under-17 high jump while athletes from Our Own English High School shone during qualifying round of the 3rd CBD Youth Athletics Championships earlier this week.
Khir had a clearance of 1.78 metres at the HCT Dubai Men’s College stadium in Academic City to better the old record of 1.66 metres that stood in the name of Ali Faisal.
“The new record means fantastic news for us in our search for young athletes who can be part of the national squad in the future,” Ahmad Al Kamali, President of UAE Athletics Association (UAE AA), told Gulf News.
The competition in the boy’s Under-17 high jump was quite intense with at least six students clearing the 1.60-metre mark. But it was Khir who excelled with the new mark.
Meanwhile, athletes from Our Own English High School Dubai fared well on both days of the qualifying rounds with Rithi Ragunathan and Sonu Varghese dominating with their performances in the girls Under-14.
Ragunathan took the top spot in the 100 metres, while Varghese was best in the long jump. The duo later combined to help their team clinch top position in the 4x100 metres relay along with Riya D’Souza and Priya Vishnu.
In the girls under-16 category, Our Own’s Neerja Sriram came out on top with first place finishes in the long jump even as teammate Aaryaa Sivakumar won the 100 metres. The Our Own quartet of Nikila Zachariah, Neerja Sriram, Aaryaa Sivakumar and Shruthi Mariam Raju then won the 4x100 metres relay.
The athletes from Our Own also tasted success in the competition for boys with Princeton Meldon winning the 100 metres for under-14s in a time of 11.81 seconds, while Sherwin Saji Chacko clocked a time of 1.48.31 to win the 600 metres race.
The CBD Youth Athletics Championships 2014 is being conducted under the patronage of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman, Dubai Sports Council with sponsorship from Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD).
The event has attracted more than 1,800 athletes from 82 schools from across Dubai. The competition is being held in six age categories including Under-11, Under-14 and Under-17 for boys, and Under-11, Under-14 and Under-16 for the girls. The semi-finals of the qualifying rounds will be conducted on February 15-18 at the same venue.
