Harmilan Bains 'pushes' for Paris Olympics qualifying mark

Harmilan Bains won two silver medals in 1500 and 800m at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Of those two medals, what stood out the most was her 800m silver simply because she emulated the feat of her athlete mother Madhuri Singh, who achieved the feat in the 2002 Asian Games.

"It is always too hard to live on the expectations and replicate your parent's success, but I am proud of the achievement,” Harmilan was quoted as saying by WION.

As the 25-year-old from Punjab grew in confidence following a successful campaign at the Asian Games, she set her focus on qualifying for the Paris Olympics.

Harmailan has been in good form since she recovered from knee surgery which forced her to stay off the track for more than ten months. At the Inter-State Championships in June in Bhubaneswar, she clocked a season-best timing to 4:08.50s, winning a silver medal in the 1500m. She also won the women’s 800m race, clocking 2:04.04s, again breaching the Athletics Federation of India’s qualifying mark of 2:04.57.

Harmilan also set a new national record in the 1500m event at the 60th National Open Athletics Championships in Warangal in 2021. She completed the face in 4:05.39s to set the national record.

Talking about her chances to qualify for the Olympics, she said, “Olympic qualification will always remain the aim; I am pushing for the Paris Olympic qualification having missed by four seconds in August."

In August, competing at the BMC Grand Prix in Manchester, Harmilan clocked 2:04.37s, missing the Paris Olympics qualifying mark (1:59.30s) by a whisker.

Harmilan also said that she draws inspiration from the success stories of fellow athletes Neeraj Chopra and Avinash Sable.

"I get around my fellow athletes who have been there and breached success, I keep speaking to Neeraj Chopra and Avinash Sable, who have boosted my confidence on multiple fronts,” Harmilan added.