Almaty (Kazakhstan), June 26: Ace sprinter Sekar Dhanalakshmi ran her personal best time to win 200m gold at the Qosanov Memorial Athletics Meet while the likes of shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and javelin thrower Rohit Yadav returned to India without competing in the event here on Sunday.
Dhanalakshmi ran a creditable sub-23 second, clocking 22.89s to better her earlier personal best of 23.14s she had come up last year. She had won a 200m gold in the national Inter-Sate Championships in Chennai earlier this month with a time of 23.27s.
She missed the automatic qualification mark of 22.80s for World Championships (July 15 to 24) in Oregon, USA, but will have to see if she can make it to the showpiece through world ranking quota. The World Championships qualification deadline ends on Sunday midnight.
Dhanalakshmi is only the third Indian woman to run sub-23s after national record holder Saraswati Saha (22.82s) and Hima Das (22.88s).
Another Indian Dutee Chand was third with a time of 23.60s.
Toor and Rohit, however, did not take part in the meet and they are reaching India on Monday as they have to complete formalities for USA visa for the World Championships. (PTI)
