Athletics
Athletics: Harmilan Bains clocks second-fastest time by an Indian woman in 1500m
Harmilan's timing of 4:08.70 at the ongoing Federation Cup is next to Sunita Rani who clocked 4:06.03 at the 2002 Asian Games.
Harmilan Kaur Bains of Punjab won the women's 1500m field that included PU Chitra from Kerala and Lili Das from West Bengal with a personal best time of 4:08.70 in the 24th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships 2021 at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports complex. She set a hot pace from the start and only Chitra tried to catch up in the first lap and a half, only to realise that Harmilan Kaur Bains was in a league of her own.
It was the second-fastest time for a metric mile by an Indian woman, the National Record of 4:06.03 having been set by Sunita Rani in the Busan Asian Games back in October 2002. The 22-year-old Harmilan Kaur Bains is the daughter of former middle-distance runners Amandeep Bains and Madhuri Singh, who won the 800m silver in the Busan Asian Games.
Harmilan Singh Bains, has grown to become an accomplished runner.
Last year the student from Punjabi University improved upon PU Chitra's All-India Universities women's 1500m record to steal the limelight in the inaugural Khelo India University Games 2020 at the Kalinga Stadium.
Amoj Jacob wins 400m with a career-best time
In Patiala, Delhi's 23-year-old Amoj Jacob showed a fine turn of speed to combine with staying power to claim the men's quarter-mile crown with a career-best time of 45.68 against more experienced runners. On the contrary, M R Poovamma's resilience and determination in the women's 400m proved too good against a bunch of youngsters, each eager to make an impression.
Gurindervir Singh (Punjab) dominated the men's 100m dash, winning in 10.32 seconds, showing that the personal best of 10.30 seconds achieved in the semifinals was not a flash in the pan. He was a picture of confidence and power as he led from gun to beam, leaving K Elakkiadasan (Tamil Nadu) and Krishnakumar Satish Rane (Maharashtra) to fight for the second spot.
Dhanalakshmi beats Dutee in 100m
In the women's 100m final, the 22-year-old Dhanalakshmi scripted a start-to-finish win, riding on an explosive start that placed her in the lead very early in the blue riband race. If there were any signs of nerves when she was up against the likes of Dutee Chand, Hima Das and Archana Suseendran, Dhanalakshmi did not let anyone see that, powering her way to a famous victory.
Dhanalakshmi produced only her second-best time, a hundredths of a second slower than the 11.38 seconds she had clocked in the semifinal heats on Monday. Dutee Chand tried hard to catch up but the girl from Tiruchirapalli showed no signs of slowing down as she broke the beam 0.19 seconds before the Asian Games medallist and World Universities Games champion.
Those who scurried to the record books discovered that the last time Dutee Chand did not win a race featuring only Indians was back in the Inter-Railway Championship in Bhopal in August 2015, a month after she ended up with bronze in the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Chennai.
