Bhubaneswar, June 17 (Hindustan). Haryana’s Anjali Devi, who returned to the track after nearly four years due to injury, clocked a personal best time to win the gold medal in the women’s 400m event at the National Inter-State Championships here on Friday. With this win, he also qualified for the Asian Championships.
Anjali, who last ran the 400m at the Indian Open Championships in Ranchi in October 2019, clocked 51.58s to win the gold at the Kalinga Stadium here. Haryana’s Himashi Malik (51.76 seconds) came second. Anjali, who earlier had a personal best of 51.53, bettered the Asian Games qualifying time by almost a second and a half.
Silver medalist Himanshi, bronze medalist Tamil Nadu’s R Vithya Ramaraj (52.49) and fourth-place finisher Aishwarya Kailash Mishra (52.79) all finished below the Asian Games qualifying timings.
In the men’s 400 metres, Kalinga Kumarej won the gold with a timing of 45.64 s, while national record holder Muhammed Anas Yahiya of Kerala won the silver with a timing of 45.76 s. Kerala’s Mohammad Ajmal and Delhi’s Amoj Jacob finished third and fourth with timings of 45.90 and 45.91 respectively. All four bettered the Asian Games qualifying time of 46.17.
Tamil Nadu’s B Siva Kumar won the gold medal in the 100m race with a timing of 10.37 seconds. In the women’s section, Andhra Pradesh’s Jyoti Yaraji captured the gold with 11.46 seconds. None of these could qualify for the Asian Games.
