Aarti wins 10000m race walk bronze with NR to open India's account in World U20 C'ships

Aarti won a bronze in women's 10000m race walk event with national U20 record time to open India's medal account in World U20 Athletics Championships here on Friday.

17-year-old Aarti clocked 44 minutes 39.39 seconds to finish third in gruelling event on penultimate day of competitions.

Aarti broke her own earlier national record of 47:21.04 which she h clocked in March while winning gold in National Federation Cup U20 Championships in Luckw.

Chinese race walkers Zhuoma Baima (43:26.60) and Meiling Chen (44:30.67) took gold and silver respectively.

On Thursday night, Pooja Singh rewrote national U20 women's national record in high jump to enter final with a ninth-place finish in qualification round.

17-year-old, who hails from Fatehb district of Haryana, cleared a height of 1.83m to finish second in qualification round group B and ninth overall and qualify for final to be held on Saturday.

Daughter of a mason, Pooja broke her own national U20 record of 1.82m set last year in Korea while winning a silver medal at Asian U20 Championships.