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Asian Junior Athletics Championship: Dangs sprinter bags bronze

In the 5,000 meter final race, Murli Gavit completed the race in 14.49 minutes and won bronze medal.

Asian Junior Athletics Championship, Junior Athletics Championship, Murli Gavit, Dangs, Dangs district, sprinter, Junior Athletics Championship bronze, sports news Murli Gavit completed the race in 14.49 minutes. Express Photo

Dangs sprinter Murli Gavit, the son of a farmer and a third year arts college student, has bagged the bronze medal for the country in 5,000-metre race in the 17th Asian Junior Athletics Championship 2016 held at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam on June 5. Murli’s talent was spotted in the Khel Mahakumbh, a state-level talent hunt organised by the state government in 2013 and 2014.

Gavit (19) is the second and youngest son of Tulsibhai Gavit, a farmer and his wife Kavita of Kumarbandh village in Vaghai taluka in Dangs district in South Gujarat.

In the 5,000 meter final race, Murli Gavit completed the race in 14.49 minutes and won bronze medal. Two Japanese sprinters – Takato Suzuki came first in the race (4.16 minutes) and Aizawa Akira bagged the second prize (14.32 minutes).

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Murli Gavit is studying in 3rd year in BA in a college in Vansda in Dangs district.

The Dangs district Information Department officials informed his father Tulsibhai at their village about the winning of bronze medal by his son for the country on Sunday. The Kumarbandh villagers celebrated his victory in a grand manner.

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Talking to The Indian Express, Tulsibhai Gavit, who was in Ahwa taluka, in Dangs, on Tuesday said, “We are very much happy that my son had won bronze medal for our country. He is a good runner and even when we used to send him to the market to purchase vegetables, he used to run to the market. I love running a lot. My wife and my elder son, who is in BSF are also happy. My elder son is proud of his younger brother Murli. “

Talking to The Indian Express over phone from Vietnam, Murli Gavit said, “Thanks to Khel Mahakumbh in Gujarat, I have been identified by the sport experts in the state and I was topper in the running race. Now my next goal is to participate in the World Junior Athletic Championship (under 20) which is going to take place in Poland in July 2016. I will work harder and will win gold medal. My dream is to represent India internationally and win gold medals. My role model is my parents, who had worked hard and even motivated me to run and even supported me on all my decisions.”

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Murli Gavit’s competency in running came into light in 2013, when he came first in the 1,500-metre running race held at Khel Mahakumbh in Dangs. Later in 2014, Murli again participated in Khel Mahakumbh at state-level. He bagged gold medals in both the 3-kilometre and 5-kilometre marathon races.

He was picked up by the state sports experts for training under coach Om Veer Singh at the National Sport Academy in Bhopal.

Murli Gavit’ coach Mohan Maurya said, “After observing him in the Khel Mahakumbh in 2014, we have found that this boy has calibre to become a champion. After finishing training at Bhopal, he went to Sport Authority of India in Bengaluru to participate in the qualifying race for the 17\th\ Junior Asian Athletics Championship. He completed 5,000-metre qualifying race in 14.14 minutes and 10,000- metre in 30.55 minutes, respectively. Under the Elite Distance Running programme of the Sports Authority of India, Murli and other athletes were sent to Kenya for training under Hugo Van Den Broek in 2015.”

First uploaded on: 08-06-2016 at 04:25 IST
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