Rezoana runs to a new National record in the girls’ under-16 400m event

Running in her maiden 400m race, West Bengal’s Rezoana Mallick Heena put on an astonishing burst of

Running in her maiden 400m race, West Bengal’s Rezoana Mallick Heena put on an astonishing burst of speed to set a new National record in the girls’ under-16 category in the 4th National Open 400m championships at the LNCPE here on Monday.

After hitting the front at the first curve, the 15-year-old reduced the race to a lap of honour with the rest trailing her. Rezoana stopped the clock at 53.22s, to break the mark of 54.57s set by Anjana Thamke at Lucknow in 2012.

Rezoana’s time was better than the timings returned by women’s winner Jyothika Sri and under-20 winner Priya Mohan.

Rezoana was confident of breaking the National record as she had routinely gone under 53s during training. “My coach Arjun sir told me to go all out and I did exactly that in the race. The hard work has paid off. I am happy that I could break the National record here,’‘ said Rezoana, who also holds the National 300m record.

Andhra Pradesh’s Jyothika Sri upset the favourite Aiswarya Mishra (Maharashtra) to win the women’s race. Aiswarya led for three-quarters of the race but didn’t have any answer to Jyothika’s superior finishing kick. Jyothika caught up with Aiswarya at the 350 mark and accelerated to the finish in 53.26s. Aiswarya came second in 53.49.

Priya Mohan was a runaway winner in the under-20 section.

Favourite V. Muhammed Ajmal strode confidently to win the men’s crown in 46.90s, while Tamil Nadu made a clean sweep of medals in the boys’ under-20 category.