Ajit Kumar Yadav of Central Region set a new national record at the school level in boy’s 1500m sprint during the ninth President’s Running Shield and School Sports that kicked off on Thursday at the Dasharath Stadium. 

Yadav clocked four minutes 03.38 seconds to better his own record of 4:15 minutes set during the last edition of the competition. Sunila Sunar of Far Western Region and Madav Kumar Chaudhary of Mid Western Region secured silver and bronze respectively. In the girls 1500m, Ram Maya Buda (5:17.4) of Mid-west won gold finishing ahead of Asha Raut of same region and Humi Buda Magar of Central Region. 

The boys long jump saw Prabhu Tharu of Western earn gold with a leap of 1.60 meteres. Mahendra Karki of the same region and Sujan Chaudhary of Mid-west took silver and bronze. Gayatri Chaudhary of Far-west won the girls long jump gold with 1.38m. She got the better of Kusum Rana Magar of Western and Nelina Shrestha of Central. 

In karate, Anil Uparkoti of Central claimed the boys 42kg weight category gold defeating Buddha Lama of Western in the final. Sajan Lama of Central edged past Gopal Gharti of Mid-west for 47kg gold. The girls 40 kg category final saw Jiya Khadgi of Central overcome Mangala Buda Magar of Western. 

Central earned double victory in girls volleyball in the opening day. They overcame Far-west 25-7, 25-9 and Western 25-13, 25-10. In other matches, Western eased past Mid-west 25-10, 25-16 and Mid-west saw off Eastern 25-14, 16-25, 25-14. In the boys volleyball, Central achieved a mixed result beating Far-west 25-19, 25-12 and lost 25-18, 25-17 to Western. 

Earlier, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari inaugurated the event an the Dasharath Stadium premises. The three-day event features volleyball, track and field events, kabbadi, taekwondo, karate, wushu, football and cricket.