KM Deeksha shatters 1500m national record in LA athletics meet; Avinash Sable finishes second in 5000m
KM Deeksha clocked 4:04.78 in the women’s 1500m race to finish third at Track Fest 2024 and eclipse Harmilan Bains’ record.
Athletics
Indian runner KM Deeksha achieved a new national record in the women’s 1500m race at the Track Fest 2024 athletics meet in Los Angeles, USA, on Saturday.
Competing at the Jack Kemp Stadium, the 25-year-old KM Deeksha clocked 4:04.78 for third place in her 2024 season opener. Harmilan Bains set India’s previous national record of 4:05.39 at the 2021 National Open Championships in Warangal.
USA’s Krissy Gear won the women’s 1500m race on Saturday in 4:03.65. Meanwhile, the entry for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the category is 4:02.50.
The Track Fest 2024 was a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze-level event. A total of 10 Indian runners, including Asian Games champions Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary, participated in the meet on Saturday.
Avinash Sable clocked 13:20.37 for second place in the men’s 5000m while Asian Games bronze medallist Gulveer Singh came fifth in the same race in 13:31.65. Luis Grijalva of Guatemala claimed the top spot in 13:16.53.
Sable set India’s national record of 13:19.30 in the men’s 5000m at the same competition last year. The qualifying time for the Paris 2024 Olympics is 13:05.00.
In the men’s 5000m section 2 race, Abhishek Pal clocked his career’s second-best timing of 13:49.42 to take the top spot.
In the women’s 5000m, Parul Chaudhary missed out on resetting her national record by 0.34 seconds. She came fifth with a timing of 15:10.69 while Ankita, with a new personal best of 15:28.08, came 10th. The entry standard for Paris 2024 is 14:52.00. Reigning Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won the race in 14:58.83.
Kartik Kumar, a silver medallist at the 2023 Asian Games, came second in the 10,000m event. He finished the race in 28:07.66, behind USA’s Casey Clinger, who clocked 27:57.90. The entry standard for the Olympics is 27:00.00.
The women’s 10000m race saw Seema (32:45.61) and Sanjivani Jadhav (32:50.12) finish 12th and 13th, respectively. In the women’s 3000m steeplechase, Priti Lamba clocked 9:53:40 for 11th place.