Pune, Jan 9 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh's Bharat Yadav and Maharashtras Karan Hegiste will offer a taste of the high level of competition in athletics at the Khelo India Youth Games here, which will begin from Thursday.

Expected to be compete for the blue riband 100 m gold in the Under-17 section, the sprinters will be among the first athletes to take to the track.

Then there are athletes like Satara's hammer thrower, Sneha Jadhav, who won the Junior Nationals last year, and Mumbai-based shot putter Poorna Raorane, who also won in junior nationals held at Ranchi.

"I missed the junior nationals in Ranchi with an injury but am well prepared to win here," Bharat was quoted as saying in a media release issued Wednesday.

With some doubt about national junior champion Nisar Ahmed's participation in the Under-21 section, the battle between Rahul Sharma (Uttar Pradesh) and Abhinav Chalangode (Kerala) will be an interesting one considering that they claimed the lesser medals behind the Delhi lad in Ranchi.

The sprint heats will herald the track and field competition in which more than 600 athletes from 29 states and seven Union Territories will bid to grab the spotlight.

The biggest of the draws, though could be two-time Asian junior 400m champion Jisna Mathew (Kerala), Uttarakhands Anu Kumar and Maharashtras Tai Bamhane.

Of course, there are others like 19-year-old hammer thrower Sneha Jadhav, who represented India in the World School Games 2016 in Turkey and in the Youth Asian Games 2017 in Bangkok.

Mumbai-based shot putter Poorna Raorane, who won gold in Ranchi with a final effort of 15.30m to slip past Punjabs Parmjot Kaur, said she was ready to repeat her feat.

Poorna finished fourth in the World School Games in Turkey.

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