[WATCH] Kiran Pahal becomes the second-fastest Indian women's 400m runner; qualifies for Paris Olympics
In a viral video posted by a user on X, Indian 400m runner Kiran Pahal can be seen taking giant strides with a comfortable lead to finish the 400m race in only 50.92 seconds to emerge as the second-fastest Indian women’s runner behind Hima Das.
Kiran Pahal clocked 50.92 seconds in the women’s 400m semi-finals at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium to top her heat, finishing ahead of Devy Aniba Zala of Gujarat (53.44 seconds) at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Panchkula, Haryana on Thursday, June 27.
You can watch her performance here:
Furthermore, Kiran, hailing from Haryana, breached the qualifying standard (50.95 seconds) in women’s 400m for the Paris 2024 Olympics to earn her tickets for Paris 2024.
The 24-year-old runner thus became the second-fastest Indian runner in women’s 400m just behind Hima Das, who created the national record of 50.79 seconds at the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta.
Additionally, Kiran, who won the Inter-State Championships title in 2022, also went past Hima’s previous Inter-State Athletics Athletics Meet timing of 51.13 seconds, set in June 2021.
Kiran Pahal returns to the field after an 8-month gap
Interestingly, this was Kiran’s first competition of the year, coming after an eight-month gap. Remarkably, this is also the first time she has breached the 51-second mark.
Her previous best was 51.84 seconds achieved during the Haryana State Championships in 2022. Notably, Kiran trains on her own without any sponsors and is disowned by her family, as stated by her after the race.
Though the Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams have already secured their Paris 2024 quotas, the AFI is racing against time in the mixed relay event.
With Kiran Pahal hitting red-hot form at the right time just before the mega event, she might be an asset for the relay team. However, AFI’s policy will consider only national campers.
The ongoing four-day edition of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships in Haryana is the final Paris Olympics 2024 qualifying event for Indian track and field athletes. The athletics qualifying window for the upcoming quadrennial event in Paris ends on Sunday, June 30.