Dharun Ayyasamy betters own 400m hurdles national record

Dharun Ayyasamy bettered his own national record to claim gold medal in the men's 400m hurdles at the 23rd Federation Cup even as eight athletes qualified for the Doha Asian Athletics Championships on the second day of the competition, here Saturday.

Ayyasamy clocked 48.80 seconds to erase his own national mark of 48.96, which he had set at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.

Ayyasamy's effort was more than enough to meet the qualification standard of 50.00 for the Asian Championships, set by the Athletics Federation of India.

"I can go even faster. My goal is to record a time of 48.50. Maybe I will do it at the Asian Championships," said Ayyasamy after the race.

Ayyasamy finished far ahead of the field with Kerala's MP Jabir clocking 49.53s to claim silver.

M Ramchandran of Tamil Nadu took the bronze medal with a time of 50.57.

Saritaben Gayakwad of Gujarat set a new meet record in the women's 400m hurdles with a timing of 57.21. The previous meet record of 57.39 stood in the name of ..