Patiala, March 18: S Dhanalakshmi of Tamil Nadu, who had stunned Dutee Chand in the 100m final, on Thursday beat another star athlete Hima Das in the 200m semifinal heats by running a meet record time of 23.26 seconds in the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships here on Thursday.
Her victory over Hima Das (Assam) in the semifinal heats lifted her to the top 10 of the Indian all-time list. Archana Suseendran (Tamil Nadu) won her semifinal heats in 24.07 seconds to raise expectations of a much-anticipated final.
It must be stated that both Hima Das (23.10) and Archana Suseendran (23.18) have faster times than the one blazed by Dhanalakshmi on Thursday. Dhanalakshmi’s time bettered PT Usha’s long-standing meet record of 23.30 seconds that she had set in Chennai back in 1998.
Having run 24.05 seconds when finishing third in the Federation Cup here two years ago, Dhanalakshmi had recorded a 23.47 in the Tamil Nadu State Championships in Sivakasi on January 24, thus making it the second time she was dipping in under 23.50 seconds.
Other personal records were broken by Delhi’s Chanda, Lili Das, Poovamma, Rachna, Shalu Chaudhary, Aishwarya Mishra and Gracena Glistus Mery of Tamil Nadu (PTI)
