Rezoana Mallick Heena - An Instagram freak who became an Asian 400m champion

With an insatiable hunger to win and speed to match, Rezoana Mallick Heena is well on her way towards becoming a household name in Indian athletics and it all began with a secret Instagram profile.

The Indian quarter-miler, only in her teens, is already an U18 and U20 Asian champion in the women’s 400m.

Rezoana Mallick Heena’s athletics career - how it started

Born on March 20, 2007, in the Sondanga village of West Bengal’s Nadia district, the start of Rezoana Mallick Heena’s athletics career, however, was far from extraordinary.

With her father Rezaul, mother Anima and uncle Amir Ali all having played kabaddi at the national level, there was no dearth of encouragement for Rezoana Mallick Heena when she developed an interest in athletics at a young age.

Her father Rezaul, who works as a teacher in a local primary school, in fact, is an avid fan of athletics. He even named his younger daughter, Rezoana’s sister, Shiny - after Shiny Wilson, who won the silver medal in the women’s 400m race at the 1986 Asian Games.

Rezoana started running at the age of five and although talented, she was far from a stand-out in the big leagues. Trained by local coach Aniruddh Pal Choudhary, Rezoana Mallick Heena managed to win medals at district and state levels but when she competed in a national talent search in Mumbai, she finished last.

For a young Rezoana, it was a tough pill to swallow but she decided to power forward.

Rezoana Mallick Heena’s Instagram break

In 2021, Rezoana Mallick Heena’s career took an unexpected turn and it was facilitated through the unlikeliest of sources - Instagram.

In her teenage whim, Rezoana secretly created an Instagram profile through her father’s phone and started following the Indian athletes she admired, including national champion Priya Mohan. Another profile she followed was of Arjun Ajay, a former national-level sprinter-turned-coach who trained Priya Mohan up until early 2023.

Rezoana also used to post her own training videos on Instagram, which caught Arjun Ajay’s attention.

“I could see that she was training on a grass field in a rural area,” Arjun Ajay told the Hindu. “She might not have had any great results but there was clearly potential. 

“She was tall – around 5’7”. Her stride pattern was good. The way she struck the ground with her foot made me think that if she put in good strength training, I could get a lot out of her. This was someone I felt could be pushed.”

Arjun Ajay, who runs the Top Gun Track and Field Academy in Bengaluru and Ooty, admits that he never expected to scout a talent off Instagram. But the young girl from Bengal, who had been spam-liking his posts on Instagram, had the coach intrigued. “It felt like destiny,” Ajay said.

After getting in touch with Rezoana, her uncle and her father, arrangements were finally made for the young athlete to travel to Ooty to train in Arjun’s academy. Rezoana later moved to Bengaluru to train under Arjun.

The initial days, however, were a little challenging. Though Instagram was responsible for her opportunity, Rezoana’s addiction to the social media platform was an issue.

“She can be a complete brat. She was obsessed with using her phone and Instagram,” Arjun revealed. “She needed to sleep but I’d find her using her phone. Then to trick me she blocked me on Insta so I couldn’t see whether she was online or not. Finally, I had to confiscate the device.”

Besides working on Rezoana’s technique, Arjun, a new-age technology-driven coach, also implemented some state-of-the-art methods to bring the best out of Rezoana. Her DNA sample was sent to the Netherlands for testing and Arjun used the results to draw up a personalised training schedule and diet for Rezoana.

Arjun Ajay even convinced Rezoana to cut her hair short and it shaved a good couple of seconds off her timing.

The results soon translated on the track as Rezoana Mallick Heena became the U16 300m national champion in Guwahati in 2022. However, grander feats were waiting for the young runner in 2023.

Rezoana Mallick Heena's medals and records

In March 2023, Rezoana Mallick Heena won the U16 women’s race at the Indian Open 400m competition, clocking 53.22s. Interestingly, her time was better than both Priya Mohan, who won the U20 category with 53.55 and Jyothika Sri Dandi, who clinched the senior gold by clocking 53.26.

The mark also saw her obliterate the U16 national record in women’s 400m, beating Anjana Thamke’s time of 54.57 from 2012.

Later that month, Rezoana Mallick Heena became the U18 national champion in Udupi and also won the silver medal in the 200m at the same event, finishing just 0.03s slower than winner Khushi Sadana.

In April, Rezoana Mallick Heena made her debut on the international stage at the Asian U18 Athletics Championships 2023 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Rezoana Mallick Heena emerged as the most-decorated Indian athlete at the Tashkent meet, winning three medals - two golds (girls 400m and girls team medley relay) and one silver (girls 200m).

In the girl’s 400m race, Rezoana Mallick Heena clocked her personal best of 52.98s to break the eight-year-old meet record held previously by Bahrain’s legendary Salwa Eid Nasser (53.02s), a former world champion. The Bengal runner was just 0.02 seconds off the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) qualification standard for Asian Games 2023, set at 52.96.

At Tashkent, she also erased the Under-18 women’s 400m national record of 53.14s, which was held by Jisna Mathew since 2015. Hima Das, with 50.79, holds the national record in the women’s 400m.

Rezoana Mallick Heena then stepped up at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships 2023 in Yecheon, Republic of Korea.

Once again, she emerged as India’s most successful athlete at the meet, bagging an individual gold medal in the women’s 400m race, clocking 53.32s.

Rezoana Mallick Heena also bagged a team gold in the women’s 4x400m relay race along with Anushka Dattaray Kumbhar, Riya Nitin Patil and Kanista Teena. She was a part of India’s mixed 4x400m relay team that won bronze as well.

The young runner from Bengal was part of the Indian 4x400m relay team which won a bronze at the Asian Athletics Championships 2023 in Bangkok.

Rezoana Mallick Heena, however, is still far from realising her promise. “I still have a long way to go. I still have many medals to win,” she says.

Rezoana Mallick Heena achievements and personal bests

• Won gold medal at the Indian Open 400m Championships 2023 U16 race, clocking 53.22s
• Broke the U16 women’s 400m national record (54.57s), previously held by Anjana Thamke
• Won gold medal in girls 400m at U18 Asian Championships 2023 in Tashkent, clocking 52.98s (personal best)
• Broke the U18 Asian Championships meet record in girls 400m ( (53.02s), previously held by Bahrain’s world champion Salwa Eid Nasser
• Broke the eight-year-old U18 women’s 400m national record (53.14s), previously held by Jisna Mathew
• Won silver medal in girls 200m at U18 Asian Championships 2023 in Tashkent, clocking 24.38s
• Personal best in women’s 200m - 24.23s in heats of the Indian U18 Championships 2023 in Udupi
• Won gold medal with the Indian girls medley relay team at U18 Asian Championships 2023 in Tashkent
• Won gold medal in girls 400m at U20 Asian Championships 2023 in Yecheon, clocking 53.32s
• Won gold medal with the Indian girls’ 4x400m relay team at U20 Asian Championships 2023 in Yecheon
• Won bronze medal with the Indian 4x400m mixed relay team at U20 Asian Championships 2023 in Yecheon
• Won bronze medal as part of the Indian women's 4x400m relay team at Asian Athletics Championships 2023 in Bangkok