In her maiden 400m race, Rezoana Mallick Heena (West Bengal) with an astonishing burst of speed, set a new national record in the girls’ under-16 category in the fourth National Open 400m championships at the LNCPE in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
After hitting the front at the first curve, the 15-year-old reduced the race to a lap of honour as the rest followed her. Rezoana stopped the clock at 53.22s, breaking the 11-year-old record of 54.57s set by Anjana Thamke in Lucknow in 2012. Rezoana’s time was better than the timing returned by women’s winner Jyothika Sri and under-20 winner Priya Mohan.
Rezoana was confident of breaking the national record as she had routinely gone under 53s during training. “My coach Arjun sir told me to go all out and I did exactly that in the race. The hard work I did has paid off. I am happy that I could break the national record here,’‘ said Rezoana, who also holds the national 300m record.
Jyothika Sri (AP) upset favourite Aiswarya Mishra (Maharashtra) to win the women’s 400m race. Aiswarya led for three quarters of the race but didn’t have any answer to Jyothika’s superior finishing kick. Jyothika caught up with Aiswarya at the 350 mark and accelerated to finish in 53.26s. Aiswarya came second in 53.49. Priya Mohan was a runaway winner in the under-20 section.
Favourite V. Muhammed Ajmal strode confidently to win the men’s 400m in 46.90s while Tamil Nadu made a clean sweep of medals in boys under-20 category. f
The results (finals)
Men: 1. V. Muhammed Ajmal (Ker) (46.90s), 2. Rahul Ramesh (Mah) (47.54), 3. Santosh Kumar (TN) (47.72)
Boys: Under-20: 1. S. Bharath (TN) (47.83s), 2. A. Suraj (TN) (48.25), 3. R. Abishek (TN) (48.25).
Under-18: 1. Ayush Baliyan (UP) (50.42s), 2. Himanshu Sharma (UP) (50.52), 3. Mohan Kumar (UP) (50.92).
Under-16: M. Nithin (Kar) (51.22s), 2. Aryan Tyagi (Del) (51.66), 3. Sourav Dahiya (Har) (52.60).
Women: D. Jyothika Sri (AP) (53.26s), 2. Aiswarya Mishra (Mah) (53.49), 3. Kiran Pahal (Har) (54.29).
Girls: Under-20: 1. Priya Mohan (Kar) (53.55s), 2. Kuldeep Kaur (Pun) (56.97), 3. P.R. Neeharika (TN) (57.41).
Under-18: Krushi Umesh (Mah) (56.18s), 2. Shravani Sangle (Mah) (57.88), 3. P. Pavithra (TN) (58.25).
Under-16: Rezoana Mallick Heena (WB) (53.22 - NR; OR - 54.57, Anjana Thamke, Lucknow, 2012), 2. Mansi Bharekar (Mah) (56.77), 3. M. Nethra (TN) (57.66).
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