Nirmala Sheoran has just clocked a brilliant 51:48 seconds in Women’s 400 metres sprint at the 56th National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships at Hyderabad’s G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium to become the first Indian female sprinter to make the cut for Rio Olympics 2016 in this event.
The sprinter from Haryana has thus beaten the qualification mark of 52:20 seconds for Rio by a fair margin on Day 4 of the meet organised by the Telengana Athletics Association.
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On Thursday, the 20-year-old established herself as a serious contender for the Olympic berth when she finished with a personal best timing of 52.35 seconds. Having bettered her mark by almost a whole second now, Nirmala will be a favourite choice for the Indian Women’s 4x400m relay team as well.
Nirmala’s latest performance saw her take the finals comfortably today, with Kerala’s Jisna Mathew coming second with a timing of 53:14 seconds and Sowndharya P N from Tamil Nadu finishing third after clocking 53:85 seconds.
