Rezoana Mallick Heena broke the eight-year-old meet record of Bahrain’s former World champion Salwa Eid Nasser as she won the girls 400m gold at the fifth Asian under-18 athletics championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
The 16-year-old from Nadia in West Bengal, who is coached by Arjun Ajay in Bengaluru, clocked 52.98s (Salwa’s old meet record 53.02s) which made her the world’s fastest under-18 quartermiler this year and the fastest Indian woman this season. Rezoana’s sterling sprint also bettered former Asian silver medallist Jisna Mathew’s under-18 national record (53.14s, 2015).
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu’s Abinaya Rajarajan clocked a personal best 11.82s while grabbing the girls 100m silver in 11.82s. Bahrain’s Lalya Kamal took the gold in 11.77s.
In the boys section, India won bronze medals through sprint hurdler Sandeep Vinodkumar Gond (13.80s) and Babendra Singh (10,000m race walk, 43.16.95s).
