Anjali Devi tops confirmatory trial, cleared for World Championships

Quarter-miler Anjali Devi, was on Saturday cleared to take part in the World Championships in Doha starting on September 27 after she ran in a confirmatory trial in New Delhi.

She ran in the confirmatory trial at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi and clocked 52.30s while PT Usha’s trainee Jisna Mathew came second with a timing of 53.05s and V Revathi had a timing of 57.59s, being a distant third. Mathew and Revathi have already been named in the Indian team for 4x400m relay. With the AFI having a policy that those who skip national camps would not be included in relay teams, Anjali is likely to run only the individual 400m

Anjali is the fastest Indian in 400m this season as world junior champion and national record holder Hima Das, who has been ruled out of the World Championships, has been struggling with a lower back injury. She was part of the Indian team that had Spala (Poland) as its training base but returned home to get her ankle attended to.

Anjali qualified for the World Championships as early as September last year with a 51.79s effort in the National Open Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar just beating the 51.80s qualification mark. She bettered it with a personal best of 51.53 to win gold in the National Inter-State Championships in Lucknow last month.