It was a good day for Indian athletes.
Indian quartermiler Mohammad Anas qualified for the Rio Olympics by shattering the men’s 400m national record on the second day of Polish Athletics Championship at Bydgoszcz.
The 24-year-old Odisha athlete Srabani, who won gold in women’s 200m race in the South Asian Games and Federation Cup earlier this year, clocked 23.07secs at the 26th G Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan to realise her Rio Olympics dreams.
The qualifying mark for the Olympics in women’s 200m is 23.20secs.
The 23-year-old Ankit also smashed the existing national record with his best effort of 8.19m in men’s long jump in the same Meet in Almaty to ensure his passage to Rio Games. The earlier national record of 8.09m was in the name of Kumaravel Prem Kumar set here in August 2013.
The qualification standard for the Olympics in men’s long jump is 8.15 metres.
Haryana athlete Ankit had also won gold in the South Asian Games earlier this year and National Games last year.
The 21-year-old Anas clocked 45.40 secs, the exact Rio qualification timing, to book the Olympics ticket and become the 21st Indian track and field athlete to qualify for the upcoming Games.
The athlete shattered his own national record of 45.44 secs which he set on Friday on the first day of the same competition.
Rajiv Arokia, whose national record of 45.47 secs Anas broke on Friday, finished second with a timing of 45.60 secs.
Anas had won a silver in the Federation Cup National Athletics Championships here in April with a timing of 45.74 secs.
With the addition of these three, the number of track and field athletes who have qualified for Rio Olympics has swelled to 23. Athletics is set to contribute the second biggest number of members in India’s Rio Olympics contingent after hockey which will have 36 players (18 each for men’s and women’s team).
In Archery, Atanu Das qualifies for Rio Olympics in the men's individual recurve event. >Read more
