Mumbai, Jan 7 (IANS): South Zone called the shots on the first day of the 2019-20 Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) Athletics National Championships, bagging as many as 16 gold medals. Day 1 witnessed over 250 athletes vying in 32 events across 11 disciplines at the Priyadarshini Park, Malabar Hill here on Tuesday.

The third season of RFYS athletics 2019-20 kicked off in September, witnessing over 32,000 athletes from 5500 educational institutes across 8 categories. After being shortlisted in their respective city championships, over 800 budding athletes arrived here for the national championships in their quest for gold across 96 events which run between January 7 and 9.

Athletes from Karnataka and Kerala sweated to grab the maximum spots on the podium. North Zone however, was not far behind with eleven golds to their name, led by educational institutions from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.

The RFYS National Athletics records in the 4x100m categories contested on Tuesday were bettered from past years, again led by South Zone. The highlight of the day belonged to the girls as they managed to break 6 out of the past 10 respective category records.