Kiran Pahal breaches Paris 2024 Olympics qualification mark in women's 400m

Kiran Pahal on Thursday breached the Paris 2024 Olympics mark in the women's 400m at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Panchkula.

Kiran Pahal breached the Paris 2024 Olympics qualification mark in the women's 400m at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Panchkula on Thursday. Pahal recorded 50.92s in the semi-final of the women's 400m at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium to top her heats. Notably, the qualification mark for women's 400m is 50.95s.

In addition, the 24-year-old Haryana native surpassed Hima Das, who established the national record in the women's 400-metre race at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, to become the second-fastest Indian runner in the women's 400m. Hima's previous meet record, which stood at 51.13 seconds, was also broken by Kiran Pahal, who won the inter-state title two years prior. The women's 400m final will be held on Friday.

The finals in the men's and women's 5000m events, as well as the women's hammer throw, were held on Thursday, the first day of the interstate athletics meet. Gulveer Singh, who won bronze in the Asian Games, won the men's 5000m in 13:34.67. Gulveer, who established the national record in the 5000m at 13:18.92 earlier this year, improved his own meet record on Thursday.

Sunil Dawar came in second with a time of 14:02.75, while Gagan Singh finished third with 14:05.66. Kartik Kumar, the Asian Games 10000m silver medalist, did not finish (DNF). Ankita Dhyani, a bronze medalist at the Asian Championships, won the women's 5000m event in 16:10.31 in a tight final. Seema finished in second place after falling barely short at 16:10.37. Sanjivani Jadhav finished third with a time of 16:12.27.

Manju Bala won the gold medal in the women's hammer throw with a throw of 63.66 metres on her third attempt. Harshita Sehrawat finished in second place with 62.20 m, while Tanya Chaudhary took bronze with 61.57 m. The 63rd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships is the final Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying event for Indian track and field athletes. The athletics qualification window for the next summer games closes on June 30. (ANI)

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