NAGPUR’S middle distance runner Gaurav Khadatkar won asilver medal in the 13th leg of the Indian Athletics Series that was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Hanamkonda, in Warangal, Telangana on Tuesday. Organised by the Telangana State Athletics Association under the aegis of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), the meet featured top national track and field athletes competing across multiple disciplines. Re presenting Maharashtra, Khadatkar won asilver medal in the men’s 1500m race with a timing of 3min 47.90. He missed out on the first place by just afraction of aseconds.Goldwas won by Amit Kumar of Haryana with a time of 3min 47.44, while the thirdspot was taken by NarendraSingh of Army with a time of 3min 48.08. Khadatkar is arunner of Nav-Maharashtra Krida Mandal and practices regularly under the guidance of senior coach Jitendra Ghordadekar. In the women’s 1500m race, city’sBhavyashriMahalle,also representing Maharashtra, had to settle for fifth place.

 

Bhavyashri clocked 4min 47.28.The top spot was won by HV Diksha of Karnataka with a time of 4min 38.77, while the second and thirdplaces were won by AmrutaGaikwad and Shivecha Patil of Maharashtra respectively.Bhavyashri is also an NMKM athlete and trains regularly under the guidance of coach Naresh Shelke. Kashish Bhagat finished eighth in the 200m race in women’s category. Kashish also finished fourth in the 400m. The 18-year-old Kashish, who participated in open women’s category, trains regularly under the guidance of Saharsh Shah at JSW Vijaynagar.Inher early days,she started her career under the guidance of coach RamchandraWani and then coach Gajanan Thakre. Nagpur District Athletics Association Secretary Dr Sharad Suryawanshi expressed satisfaction over the performance of the players in the district. Nagpur District Athletics Association President Gurudeo Nagrale,Senior Joint SecretaryRam Wani, Joint SecretaryArchana Kottewar,Chairman Umesh Naidu, VicePresident RavindraTong, Nagesh Sahareand Shekhar Suryawanshi, Technical Committee Head Dr VibekanandSinghand others congratulated the players for their performance.