Haryana’s Anjali Devi makes golden return

Bhubaneswar, June 16

Returning to the action after nearly four years following an injury lay-off, Haryana’s Anjali Devi recorded a stunning personal best time to win the women’s 400 metres gold in the National Inter-State Championship here today and assured herself of a spot in the Asian Games-bound Indian contingent.

The 24-year-old Anjali, who last ran a 400m race in October 2019 at the Indian Open Championships in Ranchi, clocked 51.58 seconds to beat statemate Himanshi Malik (51.76s) to the gold medal at the Kalinga Stadium on the second day of the competitions. Anjali, whose personal best is 51.53s, breached the Asian Games qualifying time of 52.96s by nearly one-and-a-half second.

National Inter-State Championship

I can improve my timing a lot because I am taking part here after four-five weeks of training at the national camp. I will do hard work at the national camp and do well in the Asian Games and Olympics. I can run 49.9 if I remain injury-free and do hard training. Anjali Devi, 400m winner

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Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothi Yarraji, the national record holder in the 100m hurdles, became the fastest woman of the championship as she ran 11.46s to win gold in the 100m. National record holder Manju Rani of Punjab won gold in the women’s 35km race walk event but failed to breach the Asian Games qualifying mark.

The 24-year-old clocked 3 hours, 21 minutes and 31 seconds in hot and humid conditions but fell way short of the Asian Games qualifying mark of 2:58.30. Haryana’s Juned Khan won the men’s 35km race walk event, clocking 3:00:37.00, which was also short of the Asian Games qualifying time of 2:35.00.