BHUBANESWAR 12-Jun-2012 150
Purnima Hembrum made Odisha proud by winning gold medal in women`s heptathlon event of the 15th Asian Junior Athletics Championship, which concluded at Sugathadasa National Stadium in Colombo (Sri Lanka) today.
The 19-year-old tribal athlete, who hails from Asana village of Mayurbhanj District, finished with a total of 4,979 points, 77 points more than Thailand`s Sunisa Khotseemueang, who settled with the silver medal. Kirnos Nadezhda of Kazakhstan took bronze medal with 4585 points.
Competing in the hot and humid climate, Purnima led the event at the end of first day with 2921points. In the seven-discipline event, the Odisha athlete stood first in 100m hurdles (14.57s, 899pts) and 200m sprint (26.32s, 769pts); second in shot put (10.35m, 552pts) and 800m (2:24.11s, 769pts) and third in high jump (1.57m, 701pts), long jump (5.41m, 674pts) and javelin (37.25m, 615pts).
This was the maiden international medal for Purnima, who was selected to represent the country in the Asian Junior Championship after bagging the pentathlon gold with a new meet record of 4,810 points in the 11th Federation Cup Junior National Athletics Championship at Pune earlier last month.
