25th National Federation Cup Athletics Competition: Assam’s talented runner Amlan Borgohain sprints to glory in men’s 200m

Assam’s promising sprinter Amlan Borgohain cruised to victory in the men’s 200-meter race with a national record to boot. His performance came on the final day of the 25th National Federation Cup Athletics Competition in Kozhikode, Kerala, on Wednesday.

Amlan Borgohain’s gold-winning time of 20.52 seconds was better than Muhammed Anas' national record of 20.62 seconds set in Poland in 2018. The 23-year-old athlete from Assam trains at Odisha’s High-Performance Athletics Center in Bhubaneswar. He, thanks to this effort, has qualified for the Asian Games too.

Amlan Borgohain's early season form, if sustained in the coming months, could give him the opportunity to fight for a podium finish in the upcoming international meets.

Uttar Pradesh’s Akash Kumar won silver in 20.89 seconds while Muhammed Ajmal of Kerala claimed bronze with a time of 20.92 seconds.

The women’s 200m title was keenly contested. Assam ace sprinter Hima Das denied 400m champion Aishwarya Mishra from scoring a double in the competition.

Hima edged past Aishwarya to win gold in 23.63 seconds, while the latter clocked 23.64 seconds for silver.

After the race, Aishwarya said:

“It was a close race, but I’m satisfied with my performance.”

Earlier on Sunday, Aishawarya had won women’s 400m title with a time of 51.18 seconds.

Amlan Borgohain and Hima Das' victories made it a great day for Assam, a state that is fast making a mark in Indian sports.

Other events at National Federation Cup Athletics Competition

In a rain-delayed men’s 5000m race, Avinash Sable clocked a creditable 13:39:43 seconds to win gold. It was the fastest time on Indian soil so far, and better than the meet record of 13:47:28 seconds.

The army runner, however, fell nearly 11 seconds short of erasing the national record of 13:29:70, set by Bahadur Prasad in 1992, in Birmingham.

The men’s triple jump was also a major attraction on the concluding day as Kerala’s Eldhose Paul won the gold medal with a meeting record of 16.99m.

However, 2018 Asian Games champion Arpinder Singh was unimpressive on the field and finished a distant 10th out of 14 athletes in the fray. Renjith Maheswary had set the previous Federation Cup record of 16.85m in 2012.

As expected, Parul Chaudhary of Uttar Pradesh claimed the women’s 5000m title. Her winning time was 15:39:77.

Seema of Himachal Pradesh was second in 15:40:60, while Maharashtra’s Sanjivani Jadhav was third with a time of 15:42:80. This was Sanjivani’s second medal as she won the 10,000m gold on the opening day of the competition.

Jabir Palliyalil (men’s 400m hurdles), Anu R (women’s 400m hurdlers), Deepak (men’s hammer throw) also won gold medals in their respective events.