Sprinter Anas smashes national record, Hima wins 3rd gold in less than 2 weeks

Mohammad Anas bettered his own national record in men’s 400m to clinch gold and qualify for the World Championships while Hima Das won the women’s 200m event for her third international triumph in less than two weeks at the Kladno Athletics Meet in the Czech Republic.

The 24-year-old Anas clocked 45.21 seconds as he won an easy race, finishing nearly one second ahead of silver winner Omelko Rafal (46.19) of Poland in the race run on Saturday night.

Apart from re-writing his earlier national record of 45.24 seconds which he recorded last year, he also qualified for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Doha from September 27 to October 6.

The World Championships qualification time is 45.30 seconds in men’s 400m race.

In the women’s 200m race, Hima clocked a much improved time of 23.43 seconds to win the gold. She has a personal best of 23.10 sec in 200m. This was her third international gold in 11 days.

In her first competitive 200m race of the year, the 19-year-old Assam runner had clocked 23.65 seconds on her way to gold at the Poznan Athletics Grand Prix in Poland on July 2. After that, she won her second 200m gold at the Kutno Athletics Meet, also in Poland, on July 7 with a time of 23.97 seconds.

At this Czech Republic city of Kladno, the Indian trio of Vipin Kasana, Abhishek Singh and Davinder Singh Kang took the top three spots in men’s javelin final with efforts of 82.51m, 77.32m and 76.58m respectively.

In men’s shot put event, national record holder Tejinder Pal Singh Toor managed a creditable best throw of 20.36m to win the bronze. He holds the national record of 20.75m.

In the women’s 400m, V K Vismaya clocked her personal best of 52.54 seconds to win the race. Saritaben Gayakwad was third with 53.37.

Meanwhile, in the XXII International Memorial Competition in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Indians also bagged 6 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze, with national record holder M Sreeshankar winning the long jump event with a creditable 7.97m.

The other gold winners are Archana in 100m (11.74 sec), Harsh Kumar in 400m (46.76 sec), Lili Das in 1500m (4:19.05), Sahil Silwal in the javelin throw (78.50m), women’s 4×100 relay (45.81 sec).

Rahul (1500m; 3:50.69), Jisna Mathew (400m, 53.76) and Gajanand Mistry (400m, 47.23) won silver medals while Rohit Yadav bagged a bronze in the javelin throw (73.33m).