Mysore: Kerala boys and girls became champions of the 24th Junior National Athletics Championships held here Sunday.

Kerala won 87 medals, including 35 golds, 31 silver and 21 bronze while Tamil Nadu boys bagged 50 medals, including 18 gold, 16 silver and 16 bronze, to became runners up.

In under-20 category, Kerala boys bagged the championships, while Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Tamil Nadu declared champions in boys under-18,16 and 14 categories, respectively. In the girls section, Kerala emerged champions in under-20,18 and 16, while hosts Karnataka hogged the limelight in the under-14 section.

Kerala's Jitin Paul was declared the individual champion with 1,007 points in the boys under-20 section, while Maharashtra's Saba Bhagat with 1,056 points became individual champions in under-18 category, while Sukhdev Singh of Haryana with 966 points and P Anburaj of Tamil Nadu with 778 points points emerged champions in the boys under-16 and 14 sections, respectively.

Tintu Luka of Kerala was declared the best athlete in the girls under-20 category with 1,051 points. G Gayathri of Tamil Nadu claimed the girls under-18 individual honour with 1,028 points.

Ranjitha Mahanta of Orissa bagging 992 points and Ruma Sarkar of West Bengal with 876 points won the individual honours in girls under-16 and 14 sections, respectively.

Rohit Kumar of Uttar Pradesh created a new national record in under-18 section in javelin throw, with 71.52 metres.