Guwahati: Indian quartermiler Nirmala Sheoran arrived back on the scene after a year of ‘battling personal problems’ to qualify for the Asian Games with an impressive timing of 52.36 seconds in the women’s 400m heats of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here Thursday.
Meanwhile Odisha’s Dutee Chand who has already breached the qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) in the 200m, did so again in the 100 metres.
Since last year’s World Championships, Nirmala has not run a competitive race and her whereabouts and training place were not known to AFI.
However, the Haryana athlete did not show any signs of rustiness as she came first in heat number two at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium here. The Asian Games qualifying time for this event set by AFI is 52.47s.
“I am feeling good at my timing but I am not still 100 per cent, I just recovered from typhoid,” Nirmala, who has a personal best of 51.28, said after the race.
“I did not do anything suspicious. Because of personal and family problems, I went into depression after World Championships. There were illness in my family and other personal problems. I wanted to compete at the Commonwealth Games but then I suffered from typhoid,” Nirmala added.
Nirmala also said she had not informed the AFI regarding my whereabouts. “No, I did not give any information to AFI. After the World Championships I was at my village in Dadri (in Haryana) which is near Rajasthan and later I was training alone with my coach Vijender at Bhiwani in Haryana,” Nirmala informed.
Dutee clocked 11.42 seconds in one of the 100m heats. The qualifying time set by the AFI for this event is 11.67s. Dutee holds the national record of 11.30 seconds in this event.
