Buzz around Kiran’s sparkling performance in junior boys’ 110m hurdles

K. Kiran of Palakkad who broke the meet record in the junior boys 110m hurdles at the Kerala State schools athletics championships at Kunnamkulam on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: K.K. NAJEEB

Thiruvananthapuram’s D. Sheeba who claimed the senior girls’ 100m hurdles at the Kerala State schools athletics championships in Kunnamkulam on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
K.K. NAJEEB

KUNNAMKULAM: “He has broken the National record,” exclaimed an excited Haridas repeatedly on Thursday evening as soon as Palakkad’s K. Kiran finished the junior boys 110m hurdles in an impressive 13.84s at the 65th Kerala State schools athletics championships at the Government VHSS ground here.

Former international Haridas and his son Arjun coach the promising sprint hurdler at Palakkad’s Olympic Athletic Club and the senior revealed that the old record of 14.02s was in the name of Mohit and was set in 2019.

Unfortunately, the State meet’s organisers do not maintain a list of National schools records so one is not sure whether Kiran had indeed achieved the feat.

“We don’t have them so we can’t say for sure whether it is better than the national schools record,” said Jimmy Joseph, a senior technical official at the meet. But he pointed out that Kiran’s time would rank 40th in the under-18 world list this year.

Nothing new

However, Kiran is not new to National records. At the Guwahati Junior Nationals in November 2022, the youngster had broken the under-16 boys 80m hurdles National record clocking 10.61s (old 10.81) and if he continues his impressive run the 16-year-old could better international Maymon Paulose’s under-18 National record of 13.57s in a year or so.

Kiran’s performance today broke the five-year-old junior meet record here by a huge margin (old 14.74s) and was better than the senior (14.08s, under-19) meet record too.

“I thought I’d do sub-14s but I didn’t expect this sort of time,” said Kiran, a student of Vadavannur VMHS school, whose performance was the day’s lone record too.

The results (winners only): Boys: Seniors (under-19): 1500m: J. Bejoy (Pkd) 4:01.91s. 110m hurdles: Milan Thomas (Koz) 14.59s. 4X100m relay: Malappuram (44.12s). Hammer: Adwaith Santhosh (Wyd) 55.27m.

Juniors (under-17): 1500m: M. Amruth (Pkd) 4:08.80s. 110m hurdles: K. Kiran (Pkd) 13.84s (MR, Old: 14.74s, R.K. Suryajith, 2018). 4x100m relay: Thiruvananthapuram (44.09s). Long jump: Femix Rijesh (Tvm) 6.63m. High jump: Juwel Thomas (Ktm) 1.96m. 5km walk: Adhith Anil (Koz) 24:16.52s. Discus: Jefrin Manoj Anthraper (Ekm) 39.93m.

Sub-juniors (under-14): 600m: Arshad Ali (Pkd) 1:28.32s. 80m hurdles: Adhikrishna Dineesh (Tsr) 12.26s. 4X100m relay: Alappuzha (48.46s).

Girls: Seniors (under-19): 1500m: C.R. Nithya (Ekm) 4:50.44s. 100m hurdles: D. Sheeba (Tvm) 14.40s. 4X100m relay: Palakkad (51.14s). Triple jump: Janice Treesa Regi (Ekm) 12.09m. Javelin: Emlin Anna Paul (Ekm) 31.61m.

Juniors (under-17): 1500m: Nivedhya Kaladhar (Pkd) 4:57.85s. 100m hurdles: Adithya Aji (Mlp) 15.16s. 4X100m relay: Kollam (50.90s). 3Km walk: K.P. Geethu (Mlp) 16:44.87s. Triple jump: Ganga Surendran (Koz) 11.20m. Javelin: P. Varsha (Mlp) 33.98m.

Sub-juniors (under-14): 600m: Ansil Biju (Idk) 1:45.82. 80m hurdles: T.V. Devasree (Knr) 13.09s. 4X100m relay: Kannur (52.69s). Shot put: N. Abhinaya (Koz) 9.52m.