Nagpur: Neha Dhabale of Nagpur with her fine performance bagged two gold medals at the 72nd Maharashtra State Senior Athletics Championships that concluded at RTMNU’s synthetic track in Ravi Nagar on Monday.
Dhabale secured her individual gold in 400 metre hurdles and also clinched first position in women’s 4x400m relay. Dhabale is the only one from Nagpur who got an individual gold in any event of the prestigious State event.
On the final day of the championships, Nagpur got a total of five medals which included three gold and two silver medals. Dhabale’s superb show in 400 metre hurdles was followed by golds from Nagpur men’s and women’s teams in 4×400 metre relay. A team comprising Neha Dhabale, Sakshi Tambakhe, Bhavashree Mahalle and Chaitali Borekar gave their best to secure first place. They completed the race in a record time of 3 mins 57.78 secs. The second place was taken by Akola and Gadchiroli finished third.
In the men’ group, Nagpur team of Ashutosh Bavne, Ishan Khodke, Romesh Shende and Prateek Kanhere won gold with a record time finish of 3 mins 20.64 secs. Silver medal went to Thane as they completed it in 3 min 24.34 secs and the Pune team finished at the third position with 3 mins 28.27secs.
In 3000 metre steeplechase, Nagpur’s Riya Dohtare and Saurav Tiwari won silver medals in their respective categories. In the women’s event, Dohtare completed the race in 10 mins 32. 05 secs to secure second spot. The first position went to Komal Jagdale of Nashik who finished the race in 10 mins 17.17 secs and the bronze medal was taken by Vaishnavi Sawant of Satara with a finishing time of 11 mins 38.77 secs.
Saurav got second place as he reached the finishing line in 8 mins 57.53 secs. Satara’s Sushant Jedhe won gold by completing it in 8 mins 44.22 secs, while Siddhant Pujari of Kolhapur was third with 9 mins 7.94 secs.
Nagpur District Athletics Association President Gurudeo Nagrale, Secretary Dr Sharad Suryawanshi, Vice President Ravindra Tong, Vice-President Nagesh Sahare, Senior Joint Secretary Ramchandra Wani, Joint Secretary Archana Kottewar, Treasurer Dr Sanjay Chaudhary, Head of Technical Committee Dr Vibekanand Singh congratulated the players on their success.