Deeksha breaks 1500m National mark in LA

K.M. Deeksha bettered her personal best by more than a second as she broke Harmilan Bains’ threeyear-old 1500m National record at the Sound Running Track Fest in Los Angeles on Saturday.

The 25-year-old who shocked Harmilan (National record 4:05.39) and won the Inter-State National gold in Bhubaneswar last year, clocked 4:04.78s (previous best 4:06.07s) while ‘nishing third in Los Angeles. American Kristlin Gear, the US National 3000m steeplechase champion, won in a personal best 4:03.65s.

Sable’s narrow miss

Meanwhile Avinash Sable, the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games silver medallist, narrowly missed breaking his National record while ‘nishing second in the 5000m in 13:20.37s (National record 13:19.37) while Gulveer Singh (13:31.65) was ‘fth.

In the women’s 5000m, Asian Games champion Parul Chaudhary was ‘fth in 15:10.69s and Ankita (15:28.08) was 10th.

Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won the women’s 5000m gold in 14:58.83s.

Kartik Kumar was second in the men’s 10,000m in 28:07.66s and in the women’s 10,000m Seema (32:45.61s) and Sanjivani Jadhav (32:50.12) ‘nished 12th and 13th respectively.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Priti clocked 9:53.40s for the 11th spot.

Asian Games champion Annu Rani opened her season with a decent 60.68m effort while ‘nishing sixth in the Hylo Javelin Throw Meeting in Offenburg, Germany, on Sunday.

The National record-holder with 63.82m, Annu’s best came in her last throw. Adriana Vilagos, the under-20 World champion from Serbia, won with 63.58m.