Kathmandu: Santoshi Shrestha of Bagmati and Mukesh Pal of Tribhuvan Army Club won gold in the 1,500-meter race at the 44th National Athletics Championship on Friday.
On the first day of the three-day competition, the men’s and women’s finals were held in the 1,500-meter race. Trying to escape the injury, Santoshi completed the required distance in 4 minutes 42.8 seconds and won the gold.
Santoshi, the gold medalist of the 19th South Asian Games, was injured for four months. Although she looked stronger than her rival, she could not break the national record.
Saraswati Bhattarai of the Army is in the name of 1500 meter women’s side. She clocked a time of 4 minutes 33.94 seconds at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She trailed Purnalakshmi Neupane of Tribhuvan Army by about 16 seconds. Purnalakshmi completed the distance in 4 minutes 58.2 seconds and won the silver. APF’s Asha Raut completed the distance in 5 minutes 5.9 seconds and won bronze.
