Anjali makes stunning return, betters World C'ships qualifying mark to win 400m gold

Haryana's Anjali Devi made a stunning return to competitive race after an injury lay-off as she won the women's 400m gold in the 59th National Inter-State Athletics Championships here on Thursday.

Anjali clocked a personal best of 51.53 seconds to beat Saritaben Gayakwad (52.96) of Gujarat and Jisna Mathew (53.08) of Kerala by a distance at the PAC Stadium.

The 20-year-old Anjali has already qualified for the World Championships as early as in September last year with a 51.79 second effort in the National Open Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar. She again dipped further below the World Championships mark on Thursday.

The World Championships qualifying standard for women's 400m is 51.80 seconds and Anjali is the lone Indian to have crossed the mark so far.

Reigning world junior champion Hima Das, who has won six gold medals in Europe recently in mediocre fields, is yet to qualify for the World Championships in her pet event of 400m.

The qualifying period is till the midnight of September 6.

Anjali had been part of the Indian team that had Spala (Poland) as its training base but returned home to get her ankle attended to.

"Having not run since the Federation Cup (in March), I knew I would have to give my best in the final," Anjali said after winning the gold.

"I am grateful to all those who stood by me when I was getting my ankle treated. The national coaches have been in touch with me and I have trained under coach Rohtas Siwach at home before coming here."
The Results (finals):
Men:
10000m: 1. Gopi Thonakal (Kerala) 30:52.75; 2. Arjun Kumar (Uttar Pradesh) 30:55.71; 3. Vikram Bangriya (Goa) 30:59.98
Women: