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Haryana’s promising International 400m runner Anjali Devi was the main attraction during the 2019 season as she won her event with a time of 51.53 seconds at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Lucknow.
While the 2020 season was disrupted by the pandemic, she failed to live up to her reputation last year due to niggles and an unsteady running graph.
Anjali, who is currently attending the national camp in Kerala, is considered one of the main runners for the national 4x400m relay team.
“Anjali strained her quadriceps muscle last March. It took a long time for her to fully recover. She is now back to normal training routine,” an official of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said.
Anjali is among half-a-dozen women's 400m runners selected for the national camp in preparation for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The camp runs until the end of February.
While Anjali is going through her paces in Thiruvananthapuram, it is being debated in the corridors of the AFI offices whether she will be able to deliver the goods this year or not.
Can Anjali Devi repeat her 2019 performance?
Will she repeat her 2019 performance of 51.53 seconds? Given her fluctuating 2019 performance graph, it will be a challenge for the coaches overseeing the national camp to keep Anjali on course for another sub-52 seconds race this year.
Anjali’s past performances indicate she has a knack for excelling on home soil, but her performances usually decline in overseas events.
For example, in August 2019 she ran a superb 51.53 seconds. A month later she made a first round exit at the Doha World Athletics Championships. Her time in the preliminary round was 52.33 seconds.
“Despite good training it’s a bit confusing why a promising runner like Anjali couldn’t repeat her 51.53 or do better in Doha,” said a national coach.
Anjali’s 400m time at the beginning of 2019 was 54.50 seconds clocked in March. In August, she clipped vital seconds to qualify for the Doha World Athletics Championships by clocking 51.53 seconds in Lucknow. It was the fastest time of the year by an Indian female 400m runner. The qualification time for the Worlds was 51.80 seconds.
But her performance graph dipped in September (52.33 seconds) and declined further in October. She finished third at the National Open Athletics Championships held in Ranchi with a time of 53.03 seconds.
“If Anjali is able to stay injury-free, there is hope she could race sub-52 seconds. Having a sub-52 runner in the 4x400m relay squad is really good,” an AFI official said.
