Get ready for the Deepanshi surprise

Get ready for the Deepanshi surprise

A year ago, Himanshi Malik virtually came out of nowhere and finished 2024 as the country’s fastest quartermiler with her 51.76s after the Inter-State National champion Anjali Devi (51.48s) failed a dope test. Himanshi, from Haryana, had a knee surgery earlier this year and is yet to return to competition.

The Olympics are just a month away and since India has surprisingly qualified for the women’s 4x400m relay (from the recent World Relays in Bahamas), there is a desperate search for quality quartermilers to strengthen the team to Paris. And with the Inter-State Nationals, the important Olympic selection meet, coming up in Panchkula later this month, a couple of girls have quietly thrown their hats into the ring with an eye on the Paris relay team.

Deepanshi, who skipped all the National meets held earlier this season, clocked the country’s fastest 400m this year (52.10s) at the Haryana State Championships in Karnal early this month. That’s a stunning improvement for the 21-year-old, whose previous best (53.50) came at the 2022 Chennai Inter-State Nationals where she was fifth. Her best last year was 54.18s at the Goa National Games (out in heats).

Deepanshi, who is coached by Himanshi’s coach Ramesh Sindhu in Rohtak, appears to be ready to make a bang at the Inter-State Nationals in her home State Haryana.

“I expect her to clock 51.8 or 51.9s at Panchkula and join the national camp after that. She’s tall, some 5’10, and her stride length is long,” Sindhu, who has been coaching Deepanshi for the last six years, told The Hindu from Rohtak on Monday evening.

He explained that she had missed the earlier competitions this year as she was not fit.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old former international Kiran Pahal, who had been very inconsistent after clocking an impressive 51.84s in 2022, appears to have regained her old form. She clocked 52.13s while finishing behind Deepanshi at the State meet, which will now push Tamil Nadu’s Vithya Ramraj (personal best 52.25s in March) — the country’s No. 1 this year before the Haryana Championships — to the third spot in the India 400m list this season.