Warangal, Sep 16: Punjab’s Harmilan Kaur Bains shattered a 19-year-old record to win the 1500m title while Delhi teenager Taranjeet Kaur triumphed against all odds to emerge the fastest in the 100m dash of the 60th National Open Athletics Championships here on Thursday
Twenty-year-old Harmilan cruised home in 4:05.39 seconds to erase the mark set by Sunita Rani at 4:06.03 at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and she also broke OP Jaisha’s meet record of 4:11.83 (Delhi 2006). Delhi’s KM Chanda (4:18.24) shadowed Harmilan Bains until the Punjab runner sped away at the bell to win by a sizable margin.
Undefeated in eight national-level races since January 2020, Harmilan improved from 4:14.68 in the Khelo India University Games in Bhubaneshwar last year to 4:08.70 and 4:08.27 in the Federation Cup (March 16) and Indian Grand Prix 4 (June 21) respectively in Patiala. (PTI)