Athletics
Dhanalakshmi becomes third ever Indian woman to breach 23-second mark in 200m
Dhanalakshmi Sekar recorded a time of 22.89 seconds to claim the 200m gold medal at the Qosanov Memorial 2022.
Dhanalakshmi Sekar recently missed the 20-year-old national record in 200m by 0.07 seconds (AFI)
Dhanalakshmi Sekar registered a massive personal best in the 200m final at the XXXI Qosanov Memorial in Kazakhstan on Sunday, a World Athletics Continental Tour event.
She won the gold medal with a time of 22.89 seconds and narrowly beat second-placed former Asian Games champion Olga Safronova. This is the third best time by an Indian woman in 200m, after Saraswati Saha's 22.82s in 2002 and Hima Das's 22.88s last year.
Dhanalakshmi's time was 0.07 seconds short of beating the 20-year-old national record and 0.09 seconds short of the qualifying mark set for the World Championships in Oregon.
The 24-year-old from Tamil Nadu continues her rapid rise. This run improves on her previous personal best of 23.14 seconds set last year. The Tokyo Olympian is the sole Indian sprinter selected in the women's 100m sprint for CWG but was fielded in the 200m event in Almaty.
Dutee Chand, who won the 100m silver on Saturday, was a distant third and claimed the bronze medal in the 200m final.
Hima Das had also been entered for the 200m event, but there was a DNS (Did not Start) against her name. AFI later clarified that some Indian athletes, like Hima and Srabani Nanda could not catch their flight to Almaty due to visa issues.
In other events, Annu Rani took the Women's Javelin throw gold with a 62.29m throw and Ancy Sojan won gold in Women's Long Jump with a 6.44m effort.
India finished with 28 medals, including 15 golds, at the meet in Almaty.
Selected Results from Day 2:
Women's long jump: 1. Ancy Sojan (IND) 6.44m; 2. Mariya Yefremova (KAZ) 6.36m; 3. Anastasiya Rypakova (KAZ) 6.02m
Men's triple jump: 1. Nazim Babayev (AZE) 16.93m; 2. Eldhose Paul (IND) 16.55m; 3. Karthik Unnikrishnan (IND) 16.15m
Women's 200m: 1. Dhanalakshmi Sekar (IND) 22.89s; 2. Olga Safronova (KAZ) 23.21s; 3. Dutee Chand (IND) 23.60s
Women's javelin throw: 1. Annu Rani (IND) 62.29m; 2. Shilpa Rani (IND) 56.16m; Sanjana Choudhary (IND) 55.12m
Women's hammer throw: 1. Sarita Singh (IND) 62.48m; 2. Zarina Nosirjonova (UZB) 57.68m; 3. Elina Silyamieva (UZB) 55.39m
Women's long jump: 1. Ancy Sojan (IND) 6.44m; 2. Mariya Yefremova (KAZ) 6.36m; 3. Anastasiya Rypakova (KAZ) 6.02m
Men's shot put: 1. Karanveer Singh (IND) 19.47m; 2. Ivan Ivanov (KAZ) 18.33m; 3. Daniil Plotnikov (KAZ) 14.38m
Men's 800m: 1. Krishan Kumar (IND) 1:49.80; 2. Abdulazis Abdukayumov (KAZ) 1:50.89; 3. Khurshid Akhmadaliev (UZB) 1:51.58
Mixed relay 4Ñ…400m: 1. India; 2. Kazakhstan
