Olympian Sudha Singh hit the ground again with a bang. She completed the 3000m steeplechase event with the timing of 9 min:45.60 sec at the inter-state athletics meet in Chennai. She not only improved her own national record, but also earned her a chance in the World Championship. Previously, Sudha's best and the national record up to Thursday, was her timing of 9:47.70 which she had set last year in Spain.
After her record breaking run, the UP athlete confided that she had never thought that would make the new national mark here. She knew that she had the potential to improve on her existing national record but may be at the international level. There the opportunities of improvement in timings are far much better because of the good challenge given by the other international athletes. If she gave a better fight today, the timings could have been much better. Actually, her joy is doubled owing to the fact that she has qualified for the World Championships as the B qualifying standard is 9:48.00 which she had easily achieved.
Among others, Kiran Tiwari of Haryana who recorded 10:32.94 and Priyanka Patel of UP who recorded 10:45.32, stood second and third respectively in the event.
Sudha disclosed that the credit of her success goes to the specific training imparted by her coach JS Bhatia. She claimed that Bhatia sir is very particular about training. At the camp in Bangalore, he made sure that they practiced hard. Quite often they did not return home which was beneficial in the long run. She regretted that in the absence of fever, she could have improved her timings even earlier. Although she was able to break her meet record, her timing was 10:13.83 as she had just recovered from fever during Federation Cup in April.
Sudha confirmed that she would use the heightened competition at the Asian Championship to attempt and make the A qualifying standards. The athlete revealed that her immediate aim is winning in the upcoming Asian championships at Pune. She hopes to obtain the A qualifying for the Worlds there.
