National Inter-state Athletics Championships: Core group of 400m female runners sidelined due to injuries; focus on non-campers  

India’s 23-year-old elite 400m runner Anjali Devi looks a doubtful starter at next week’s prestigious National Inter-State Athletics Championships scheduled from June 10 to 14 in Chennai, a national athletics coach has said.

Anjali, who hails from Haryana, has been in the core group of elite 400m runners since October 2021. However, due to a spate of injuries she has sustained recently, she was unable to compete in domestic competitions in March and April this year.

“Anjali was twice injured during an international exposure tour in Turkey. Since she hasn’t fully recovered, she could skip the women’s 400m event in Chennai,” the athletics expert said told Sportskeeda.

He added:

“Anjali’s absence from the women’s 400m race in Chennai could hurt the Athletics Federation of India's (AFI's) prospect of building a strong relay team for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.”

Despite being on the injury list, the AFI selected Anjali for the international exposure tour to Antalya, Turkey, in April.

An athletics coach associated with the camp in Antalya told Sportskeeda:

“Initially she [Anjali] sprained her ankle during practice in Antalya. Three weeks back she got hurt and had stiches on her chin. Anjali is limping back to fitness and couldn’t compete in the 400m competition in Turkey earlier this week.”

Anjali emerged as the fastest 400m runner in 2019, clocking 51.53 seconds during a domestic meeting in Lucknow. She failed to repeat her performance at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships in the build-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Anjali also withdrew from the main domestic competition last year due to a quadricep injury.

“Anjali was expected to repeat her 2019 performance of sub 52 seconds in April, but injury halted her progress,” the coach added.

Injured VK Vismaya could also miss National Inter-State Athletics Championships

Kerala's VK Vismaya, another star 400m runner, has also been sidelined due to injury and could miss the National Inter-State Athletics Championships. Vismaya was a member of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games gold medal 4x400m Indian relay team.

“Vismaya has strained her hamstring and is unfit. Even if she competes in Chennai, she wouldn’t able to give her best,” the coach in the camp said.

With some of the youngsters sidelined due to injury, the onus will be on experienced MR Poovamma to showcase her talent on the track. Poovamma has twice clocked a sub-53 seconds for the 400m races this year in March and April.

“Poovamma didn’t go to Turkey for advance training camp as she recently got married and is training in Pune,” the coach said added.

With no encouraging performance by the core group of women’s 400m runners, the AFI will certainly have to look towards non-campers to strengthen the national 4x400m relay for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Rupal Chaudhary and Priya Mohan, two leading Indian junior 400m runners, train with their personal coaches outside the national camp. Both Rupal and Priya will compete in Chennai.

At the senior level, Aishwarya Mishra of Maharashtra is leading the domestic women’s 400m chart with an astonishing time of 51.18 seconds, clocked in April.

“The contest in the women’s 400m race in Chennai will be exciting as leading athletes will be aiming to achieve [a] Commonwealth Games berth,” one of the 400m runners said.