Railways runner Ankita Dhyani delivered a record-breaking performance on the final day of the 65th National Open Athletics Championships, winning gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with a time of 9:34.86.
Ankita broke a decade-old meet record in women’s 3000m steeplechase to win the gold on the final day of the 65th National Open Athletics Championships here at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Sunday.
Jishnu Prasad, representing All India Police, also improved the meet record in the men’s 200m. Prasad clocked 20.62 seconds to win gold and improve the previous meet record of 20.66 seconds in the name of B Nitin set in Bengaluru in 2024.
Ankita’s gold-winning time of 9:34.86 seconds was better than Lalita Babar’s meet record of 9:39.83s set in 2015 in Kolkata. It was a start-to-finish race for Ankita, representing Railways in the competition.
“I could have clocked better time. But there was no one to challenge me in the race today,” Ankita said in a post-race interaction.
The national record of Parul Chaudhary in women’s 3000m steeplechase is 9:08.67s.
Earlier in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, Sharukh Khan narrowly missed the meet record of Avinash Sable (8:29.80s) set in 2018 in Bhubaneswar.