Puducherry: A Puducherry-primarily based athlete has bagged a gold medal and a silver medal inside the concluded United International Athletic Championships 2019-20 at Sri Lanka. V Hariharan, who is presently pursuing a degree in physical education at Young Men’s Catholic Association (YMCA) at Chennai, clocked 10.62 seconds in the 100m dash bagging the yellow metallic 21.Fifty-two seconds in the 200m-run clinching silver medal. He clocked his non-public first-rate in the occasions.

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Son of a vehicle motive force C Venugopal and V Kalaiselvi, who runs a milking parlor, Hariharan took to athletics in Class 6 in 2011. It turned into obligatory in the college he studied – Petit Seminaire HSS. He flopped in his maiden overall performance, falling and injuring himself. “I was decided after the fall to perform nicely in subsequent years,” he stated.

Eight years later, he boasts of bagging close to 50 medals in various country-level and inter-faculty championships. Hariharan also excelled in relay events – 4X100m and 4X400m – and long bounce but started out focusing simplest on 100m-sprint and 200m-run after his coaches counseled him possibilities of excelling in 100m and 200m had been hampered via taking part in relay and lengthy bounce activities. He turned into declared as the general character champion after he bagged gold medals in 200m, 400m, 4X100, 4X400, and long soar events while he became a Class 12 scholar.

“The sprint you take for lengthy leap isn’t the same as the ones for 100m-sprint and 200m-run. So, I determined to cognizance extra on 100m and 200m occasions. I have stopped participating inside the relay and long jump occasions,” stated a 19-yr-old athlete, whose private first-class is 6.4m within the lengthy soar.

Hariharan said his immediate purpose is to excel in the imminent 59th country-wide inter-kingdom senior athletic championships in July at Kolkata and earn the respect of representing the united states inside the subsequent year Asian Games. “Athletic Federation of India selects athletes to represent the country based on their performances within the national championships and Grand Prix activities. Presently, I am training tough to bag a medal inside the drawing close senior championship and represent the united states within the Asian meet,” he stated.

He follows a unique eating regimen to preserve his match and agile following the recommendation of his battery of coaches in the college and sports activities improvement authority of Tamil Nadu.