Anuraag Khopkar was the lone participant from Adarsh English High School in the Nike-MSSA Inter-school Athletics Championship
Anuraag Khopkar was the lone participant from Adarsh English High School in the Nike-MSSA Inter-school Athletics Championship. But the loner emerged the star of the penultimate day as he broke three meet records on Saturday.u00a0
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Anuraag Khopkar approaches the finish line in the U-14 400m run at the University Pavilion on Saturday. pic/Atul Kamble |
The 13-year-old clocked the fastest times in the Under-14 100m, 200m and 400m categories to set the track ablaze. The most special of these three records was the 100m dash, which he finished in 11.8 seconds to better the mark of 12.1 seconds, which hasn't been bettered since 1987.
Similarly, Khopkar's 200m timing of 24.1 seconds saw him better the mark of 24.1 seconds, set by Jordon Serrao of St Mary's High School (Kalina) in 1989. Khopkar then completed the hat-trick of records with the mark in 400m run, clocking 54.3 seconds, which was 0.8 seconds faster than the previous record set by Ashish Agarwal of Gokuldham High School (Goregaon) in 1997.
Being the only student to have been participating from his school, Anuraag surely had a point to prove to his schoolmates. "I wanted to set an example for my schoolmates and hope I was successful in doing that," he said. "It's a great feeling when you set a new record. I have to still work hard and there is always room for improvement."
Meanwhile, Joshua Barretto of Jasudben ML School (Khar) clocked 52.6 seconds to set a new meet record in the boys' under-16 400m category. The Children Academy's under-8 boys also set a new meet record in the 4x50m relay, clocking 34.2 seconds.
