PANJIM: Jaganath Shivanand Kambli and Fatima Dias emerged fastest in the 100m boys and girls races respectively in the first edition of The Fastest Indian athletic meet organized by GAIL (India) Limited in association with Spoment, at SAG ground, Campal, here, recently.
Emir Brito and Ryan Fernandes secured the second and third positions respectively in the boy’s event while Chelsee Crasto and Muriel Madkaikar finished in the second and third spot in the girls category.
Francisco Sardinha, former Chief Minister and President of Goa Athletic Association inaugurated the event in the presence of Himadri Mangal, deputy general manager, GAIL Limited.
Sardinha hailed the efforts of the organizers for an event of such large scale as over 100 students from various schools participated in 100m, 200m and 400m heats.
The event concluded with great aplomb as the participating parents and students applauded the initiative of the project and deemed it as the need of the hour as a majority of talent in India goes unrecognized due to lack of such competitive platforms.
The talent hunt has already passed through Chandigarh, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Delhi. It will be held in 12 more cities across the country.
This novel initiative is an attempt to find the next Milkha Singh for the country and is targeted at securing medals in athletics at Tokyo Olympics 2020. Legendary athlete Padmashree Milkha Singh, himself, is the principal mentor of this annual event. He will also provide his input and help in selecting and grooming potential winners. The winners will receive complete scholarship up to their post-graduation to focus on running and to motivate them. They would also receive specialized training from renowned national and international sports trainers.
Results: 100m boys: 1st Jaganath Kambli, 2nd Emir Brito, 3rd Ryan Fernandes. 100m girls: 1st Fatima Dias, 2nd Chelsee Crasto, 3rd Muriel Madkaikar.
200m boys: 1st Aditya Shirgaonkar, 2nd Akshay Jalmi, 3rd Sanket Shirodkar. 200m girls: 1st Rizma Fernandes, 2nd Silona Correia, 3rd Rupal Chodankar.
400m boys: 1st Ajit Gaude, 2nd Vignesh Vignodkar, 3rd Saurav Yadav. 400m girls: 1st Beverly Coelho, 2nd Nidhi Kapileshwari, 3rd Chaitali Gawas.
