Kochi: The story of the penultimate day of the 57th state schools athletics championship was host district Ernakulam gaining a crucial lead over overnight leaders and defending champions Palakkad, at the Maharaja's College ground here.
Ernakulam showed strength in the middle distance and throws events as they doubled their points tally from day two to reach 192 while Palakkad could only add 57 to their account from the previous evening to end day three on 175.
For the host district it is far from unassailable supremacy and with a host of 200 and 800 finals remaining along with the glamourous 4X400 m relays, the champions' title is most certainly head ing for a photo finish.
A staggering 10 meet records were broken and there were no surprises when P U Chithra's name came up on the list. Last year at the University Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, Chithra and P T Usha protégée Jessy Joseph ran a near perfect race and it was the former who won gold with a record time.
This year again it was Jessy and Chithra who were the centre of attraction when the senior girls 1,500 m started. Both smashed a national schools record of 4:36.75 set by Jijimol Jacob in 2006, but it was Chithra who, once again outwit Jessy with a better time of 4:26.76.
And that was just a start, for a flurry of national records was erased in various other events as the day progressed. Shijo Mathew broke Sabeel Ahammed's 61.49 m in junior boys hammer throw with a punching effort of 66.75 m.
The next to eclipse a set mark was Athira K R of St.John's HS Nellipoil, Kozhikode. She broke Shameena Jabbar's 4:41.90 min in junior 1,500 m with a 4:35.31. In the 100 m hurdles for junior girls Dibi Sebastian of SH GHS Bharananganam set a new national schools record breaking Kerala girl Soumya Varghese's 14.94 from last year by 1/100th of a second.
K T Neena, the race walking sensation from Parli HS in Palakkad rendered history a 14:24.40 min record in the name of Meeshma K M from 2008 with a highly impressive 14:20.81.
Anju Kuriakose was the other national schools record smasher and she did it in the junior hammer throw. Her 36.04 m virtually crushed the existing 31.88 set by Haryana's Bhiteri last year.
Twinkle Tomy and M N Nasimudheen also etched their names onto the record books in senior 1,500 m and 110 m hurdles respectively .
