First international tournament, medal will always be special: Bapi Hansda
Bapi Hansda shone on the final day of action at the Asian Youth Athletics Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Sunday as the former U-18 world No.1 won a historic silver in the men’s 400m hurdles event, smashing the previous championship record. ,
In the boys’ medley relay event, Mohammad Rayan Basha also won a silver medal.
What made this feat even more special was that Bapi clocked 51.38 seconds, which was easily his personal best. His time was also better than the previous championship record of 51.96. In earlier editions of the tournament, Bapi’s time in the final would have been good enough to secure the gold. This was only the 5th time that Bapi was running in the 400 meters hurdles event and this was his third competition. Despite competing overseas for the first time and running in an unfavorable lane 8, Bapi showed tremendous skill and composure to improve on his personal best and become the first Indian to win a silver in the event.
After the final, Bapi said, “It was my first major international competition. I am very happy that I won the silver. To achieve this with a personal best was even more satisfying. I hope to continue improving in the future.” At first, I was a bit nervous as I stood third in the heat. But before the race, the coach took me aside during the warm-up and calmed me down. After that I felt great and my mind was in a good place. “
Qatar’s Mahamat Abkar won the gold with a timing of 50.91, while Kuda Liyanaz of Sri Lanka won the bronze with a timing of 51.40.
Martin Owens, Head Coach – Odisha Reliance High-Performance Centre, was pleased with Bapi’s performance. “I am very proud of Bapi. It was a great effort to produce his personal best in a very tough and competitive field and set a new championship record. He will take a lot of confidence from this win and we will look to build on this in the coming months want to do.”
Coach Owens also praised the medley relay team. “The team’s execution and teamwork on the track was extremely smooth and clinical. Their timing was impressive and winning silver at this event is a quality achievement.”
In the last four editions of the tournament, India’s best performance in the 400m hurdles event was the bronze medal won by Murad Sirman in the previous edition in 2022. (ANI)
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.
