New Delhi: Discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon became only the second Indian to grab a medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships after setting a new personal best to clinch a bronze in Eugene, USA.
The 19-year-old covered an impressive 56.36m with her throw at the Hayward Field last night in the World Junior Championships.
Her previous best was 53.97m which she recorded while winning the Junior Federation Cup at Chennai this May, a release stated.
Brazil's Izabela da Silva set a world junior leading mark of 58.03m for the gold while American Valarie Allman (56.75m) entertained the home crowd with a silver medal.
It was the second ever bronze medal for India in the world juniors after Seema Antil's 2002 effort in Kingston, Jamaica.
Incidentally Seema won a gold medal in 2000 at Santiago de Chile, but was disqualified thereafter due to doping violations.
Navjeet's first major success came in Commonwealth Youth Games at Douglas (Isle of Man) in 2011 when she won a bronze medal with a throw of 45.27m.
Last year she had taken part in the senior category in Asian Grand Prix and was placed seventh in the Asian Championships at Pune.
In the Junior Federation Cup this year, Navjeet set a new national junior record in shot put (15.89m) besides winning a "double" through a victory in discus throw with a noteworthy 53.97m.
She went on to win a bronze in shot put (14.99m) as well as a silver in discus throw (53.66m) in the Asian junior championships at Taipei thereafter.
Navjeet is also the reigning Inter-University champion.
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