Animesh leads charge as young stars shine at Asian meet

INDIAN athletics seems to be witnessing a new dawn where athletes don't fear international competitions anymore. Nor do they fear failure on big stage. The transformation from apprehension to infectious confidence seems to have brought in a change in attitude and, according to former Athletics Federation of India and current spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla, this is because of quite a few reasons. One of them is exposure to international competitions and another was because of the number of domestic competitions the AFI has been conducting.

- CHANDRA PRABHU @ Chennai

The Asian Athletics Championships has shown that youngsters have started producing results from 18-year-old to mid-20s. Out of the 24 medals India won, 20 of them have been won by those aged 26 or under. In addition to the medals, a few have shattered national and championship records as well. Young sprinter Animesh Kujur (21), javelin thrower Sachin Yadav (25) were among the stars on Saturday. While Animesh shattered his own national record in 200m, Sachin threw his personal best. There was an 18-year-old Abhinaya Rajarajan in the women's 4x100m relay t