Ranchi: Kerala finished second in the 34 th National Junior Athletics Championship held here.
Kerala’s arch rival Haryana repeated victory second time after wresting the top place from Kerala last year in Hyderabad.
The runners-up gained 134.74 points. Alongside, Kerala patched up its dented pride with “best athlete’ honour of Aparna Roy in girl’s U-18 category.
After a low-key performance in the first three days, Kerala bagged 17 medals including 5 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze.
Three athletics, potential gold medalists, withdrew after being down with fever, adding to kerala’s woes.
However, fever didn’t mar the spirit of many including Sandra Babu who wrested gold in the U- 18 girls’ triple jump while running high temperature.