Lucknow, March 8 (IANS): The opening day of the three-day 22nd National Junior U20 Federation Athletics Championships witnessed several exciting yet close contests as the event got underway at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre here on Friday. Several athletes caught the eye of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) selection panel as they achieved the Asian U20 qualification criteria set by the AFI on Day One.

The men’s 3,000m saw as many as the top eight finishers dip below the Asian U20 qualifying mark, while four runners, including three medallists, breached the Asian U20 qualification time in the women’s 3000m event. The men’s 400m semifinals were also exciting with three competitors crossing the finish line below the qualification standards to stay in the race for national team berth. The Asian qualification time in men’s 400m is 48.10 seconds.

Nikhil Suhas Dhake of Maharashtra clocked 47.95 seconds in semis, while Bapi Hansda of Odisha (47.51 secs) and Delhi's Aman Chaudhary (47.86 secs) were the other two runners who were successful in achieving their goals on Day One.

In the women's 100m preliminary round, none of the athletes pushed hard and achieved the qualification mark of 11.90 secs. In the men's heats, no one came close to the 10.50 qualifying mark.

Away from the track, the men’s preliminary long jump event saw home favourite Shahnavaz from Uttar Pradesh record a jump of 7.38m to lead the finalists and better the 7.30m qualification mark. Friday’s performance by Shahnavaz ranks him hot favourite to win the long jump title.

The performance in the men's discus throw qualification round hints that the final will be an exciting contest.

Earlier in the men’s 10,000m race, Vinod Singh of Madhya Pradesh won the gold medal with a time of 30:13.00.

Amardeep Pal of Uttar Pradesh claimed silver with a time of 30:30.14 and Kripashankar Lalmani of Manipur took home the bronze medal at 30:31.68. The 25-lap event doesn’t feature in the Asian U20 schedule.

The three-day competition in Lucknow will be the last event for budding athletes to earn a ticket to next month’s 21st Asian U20 Junior Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Dubai from April 24 to 27.