In a stupendous achievement, Services’ sprinter Manikanta Hoblidhar broke the national record in the men’s 100m on Wednesday. The 21-year-old clocked 10.23s to better Amiya Kumar Mallick’s previous best of 10.26m, at the 62nd National Open Athletics Championships in Bengaluru. The latter had set the previous record in the Federations Cup in 2016. Running in the third heat of the event, Hoblidhar went clear of Elakkiyadasan K, who clocked 10.49s.
Interestingly, this isn’t the fastest that any Indian athlete has ever run. Back in 2000, Anil Kumar Prakash had completed the 100m in 10.21s but the record was not ratified by the Athletics Federation of India. Since the runner was not present at the venue to give his samples for dope check, the record was never made official.
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