Hima Das wins gold again, Mohammad Anas smashes own national record

Mohammad Anas bettered his own national record in men’s 400m race to bag a gold while Hima Das won the women’s 200m event for her third international triumph in 11 days at the Kladno Memorial Athletics Meet at Kladno, Czech Republic on Saturday.

The 24-year-old Anas clocked 45.21 as he won an easy race, finishing nearly one second ahead of silver winner Omelko Rafal (46.19) of Poland.

Anas’ earlier national record time stood at 45.24 seconds which he recorded last year.

In the women’s 200m race, Hima clocked a much improved time of 23.43 seconds to win the gold. She has a personal best of 23.10 sec in 200m. This was her third international gold inside two weeks.

In her first competitive 200m race of the year, the Assam runner had clocked 23.65 sec on her way to gold in the Poznan Athletics Grand Prix in Poland on July 2. After that, she won her second 200m gold at the Kutno Athletics Meet in Poland on Sunday with a time of 23.97 seconds.

At Kladno, the Indian trio of Vipin Kasana, Abhishek Singh and Davinder Singh Kang took the top three spots in men’s javelin final with efforts of 82.51m, 77.32m and 76.58m respectively.

In men’s shot put event, national record holder Tejinder Pal Singh Toor managed a creditable best throw of 20.36m to win the bronze. He holds the national record of 20.75m.

In the women’s 400m race, V K Vismaya clocked her personal best of 52.54 seconds to win the ‘A’ race. Saritaben was third with 53.37.

Meanwhile, in the XXII International Memorial Competition in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Indians also bagged 6 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze, with national record holder M Sreeshankar winning the long jump event with a creditable 7.97m.

The other gold winners are: Archana in 100m (11.74 sec), Harsh Kumar in 400m (46.76 sec), Lili Das in 1500m (4:19.05), Sahil Silwal in javelin throw (78.50m), women’s 4×100 relay (45.81 sec).