NATIONAL GAMES | Quartermiler Aishwarya produces a stunning win

Aishwarya Mishra stuns with a record-breaking 400m win at the National Games, setting the stage for a promising season ahead.

What a shocker!

Quartermiler Aishwarya Mishra has thrown up many surprises in the past. She has skipped meets and then popped up with some very fast times, but on Sunday she produced a season-opening stunner that virtually knocked out everybody watching her in the 38th National Games athletics competition at the Ganga Stadium here.

The 24-year-old from Maharashtra clocked a personal best 51.12s — the fourth-fastest Indian time ever — while winning the 400m gold by a huge margin and breaking her own three-year-old National Games record by more than one second. Vithya Ramraj, the defending champion, was more than three seconds behind for the silver.

“I couldn’t believe that I have run a personal best, I really thought it would be something like 52s. I was like in a trance for five to 10 minutes,” Aishwarya, the Asian silver medallist, told The Hindu.

“It felt like I was running 300m, not in 400. I’m very happy about that.”

Nobody, not even National record-holder Hima Das (record 50.79s, Jakarta Asian Games 2018) has started the season like this.

Are there bigger things coming as the season gets into full swing?