Nagpur: When it mattered the most, Nagpur’s ace runner Neha Dhabale recorded her personal best timing in the women’s 400m hurdles race, but that was not enough for the star runner to secure a medal at the 63rd National Open Athletics Championship on Monday.
The day belonged to Railways’ R Vithya Ramraj, who shattered the 39-year-old Meet Record set by the legendary PT Usha. The national record of 55.42 seconds, established in 1984, still remains in Usha’s possession.
Gold Rate
Friday 17 Jan. 2025
At the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, Vithya, the Railways athlete, clinched the gold medal with a timing of 56.23 seconds, surpassing Usha’s record of 56.80 set at the Trivandrum Nationals in 1985.
A day after qualifying for the 400m hurdles women’s final, Neha finished fifth while improving her personal best timing to 59.07. On Sunday, Neha had qualified for the final race with a timing of 1.00:58.
On the podium, Vithya was followed by her Railways teammate Sinchal (57.60s) and Karnataka’s Prajna (57.90). Olimba Steffi of Tamil Nadu (58.09) finished fourth.
The overall championship was retained by Railways 318 points, while Nithin and Ancy Sojan, who clinched the women’s long jump gold with a big leap of 6.71m, emerged as the best male and female athletes respectively.
