Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Athlete KM Deeksha secured a bronze medal at the 60th National Open Athletics championships held at Warangal in Telangana on Thursday. Deeksha won the medal in 1500m run finishing in 4:18.34 seconds.
The youngster, however, will have to improve her timing a lot more to secure direct entry to 2022 World Athletics Championship, which is set to be held in Oregon, USA. The qualifying mark, which starts in July next year, is set at 4:04:20 seconds.
Harmilan Bains from Punjab clinched the gold, breaking Sunita Rani's 19-year-old record set in 2002 Asian Games, clocking the race in 4:05:39 seconds. Delhi's Chanda came second.
This is the first medal for Madhya Pradesh Athletics academy at the tournament that began on Wednesday. It is set to conclude on September 19.