Hyderabad (Telangana): Indian quarter-miler&nbsp;Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month's Rio Olympics&nbsp;after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m at the National Inter-State&nbsp;Senior Athletics championships here today.
Nirmala had revealed her Rio ambitions when she improved&nbsp;her previous best by a huge margin clocking 52.35 secs during&nbsp;yesterday's 400m heats at GMC Balayogi Stadium.
The Haryana quarter-miler today ran the race of her life&nbsp;as she led right from start to finish and recorded a personal&nbsp;best of 51.48 secs, a time that put her on the Rio bus and&nbsp;erased the previous meet mark of 51.73 secs held by M R&nbsp;Poovamma since 2014.
Nirmala became the 24th track and field athlete from&nbsp;India to qualify for the Rio Olympics after she surpassed the&nbsp;Olympic qualification mark of 52.20 secs.
Today's time put Nirmala fourth in the Indian all-time&nbsp;rankings behind Manjeet Kaur (51.04s, 2004), K M Beenamol&nbsp;(51.21s, 2000) and Chitra K Soman (51.30s, 2004).
P T Usha's trainee Jisna Mathew (53.14 secs) and Tamil&nbsp;Nadu's P N Souwndharya (53.85s) took the other medals of the&nbsp;day.&nbsp;
Reacting on Nirmala's time, Usha said: "The race was&nbsp;really good and it would be great if she maintained her&nbsp;performance in the upcoming meets as well."&nbsp;
Chandigarh boy Pankaj Malik romped home in the men's 400m&nbsp;gold in 47.40 secs.
Hurdler Jithin Paul from Kerala, who was expected to&nbsp;qualify in men's 400m hurdles today could not make it.
Having clocked a personal best of 49.79 secs earlier this&nbsp;month in Samorin, Slovakia, the QM of 49.40 secs looked well within his reach. However Jithin was a bit slower in the&nbsp;initial stages of the final and clocked only 50.41 secs.
Durgesh Kumar Pal, the inaugural Youth Olympic Games&nbsp;silver medalist, gave a tough fight to Jithin till the last&nbsp;hurdle. However, he was tripped at the final hurdle to fall&nbsp;miserably before the finish.&nbsp;Kerala M P Jabir (51.34s) and Tamil Nadu's T Santhosh&nbsp;Kumar (51.71s) were the other medalists today.
In long jump, Uttar Pradesh's Yugant Shekhar Singh&nbsp;registered a personal best of 7.79m to pocket the gold.&nbsp;Muhammed Anees, representing Gujarat, leapt 7.64m to take the&nbsp;silver while Karnataka's S E Shamsheer went home with a bronze&nbsp;after putting an effort of 7.49m.

Indian quarter-miler&nbsp;Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month's Rio Olympics&nbsp;after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m at the National Inter-State&nbsp;Senior Athletics championships in Hyderabad on Friday

Nirmala Sheoran qualifies for Rio Olympics in 400m

Wimbledon: Bopanna-Mergea open campaign with close win

Indian quarter-miler&nbsp;Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month's Rio Olympics&nbsp;after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m at the National Inter-State&nbsp;Senior Athletics championships in Hyderabad on Friday

Nirmala Sheoran qualifies for Rio Olympics in 400m

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Home / Sports / Other Sports / Article / Nirmala Sheoran qualifies for Rio Olympics in 400m

Nirmala Sheoran qualifies for Rio Olympics in 400m

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast