Haridwar lad wins silver at 60th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships

DEHRADUN

: Haridwar-based sprinter

Anu Kumar

won a silver medal in the men's 800-metre race at the 60th

National Inter-State Senior Athletics

Championships being held in Patiala. He finished second after Haryana’s Krishan Kumar.

Kumar, however, missed out on the qualification mark for the upcoming

Tokyo Olympics

which was 1:45.20 minutes. He fell short of the Olympic mark by six seconds, clocking 1:51.20.

“We are extremely proud of Kumar as he defeated boys much older than him in the race,” said KJS Kalsi, secretary of the

Uttarakhand

Athletics Association.

Interestingly, Kumar also practiced in the same barren pothole-ridden field in Dehradun where middle-distance runner Ankita Dhyani is forced to train. On Friday (June 25), Dhyani had won a bronze medal in the women's 5,000 metre race at the 60th National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships being held in Patiala.

TOI had earlier reported that Dhyani, a national record holder, was not given the permission to access basic training facilities before the crucial race. She was, therefore, forced to practice in a field in Dehradun while dodging stray animals.


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