Odisha’s Purnima Hembram bags gold in women’s 400m hurdles

Odisha’s woman athlete Purnima Hembram bags gold in women’s 400m hurdles on the second day of ongoing 56th National Inter-State Athletics Championships at Hyderabad.

Purnima, former Asian junior heptathlon champion, pocketed the gold clocking 59.27 secs missing the ticket to the upcoming Rio Olympics only by 3.7 sec.

While debuting in the 400 hurdles event, this was the last chance for her in India to book her space in the Indian Olympic squad. Although, she has another chance to book her berth for the Rio Games in Thailand meet to be held soon.

Meanwhile, Delhi based Ayana Thomas clocking 59.63 sec bagged second and Tamil Nadu based athlete Aarthi finishes third clocking 1 min and 60 sec.

Purnima Hembram had earlier bagged bronze medal in Heptathlon at the Asian Athletics Championship in Wuhan during 2015.

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