Kiran quietly pulls out a quartermile stunner

Her recent 51.84s makes the 21-year-old the second fastest Asian this year

While everything seems to be quiet at the Indian quartermilers’ camp in Antalya, Turkey, there is a lot of fast-paced faction happening back home.

A month after Aishwarya Mishra’s stunning 51.18s at the Malappuram Federation Cup in April and the vanishing trick after that, another quartermiler Kiran Pahal has come up with an impressive time.

Without many noticing, Kiran, from Sonepat, clocked 51.84s for the Haryana State title at Karnal a few days ago, a time that took her to the second spot in this year’s Asian 400m list, behind Aishwarya.

Kiran hit the headlines with her 52.73s (improving from 55.18 in 2018) at the 2019 Ranchi National Open and was invited to the national relay camp. But she had a very quiet life after that, clocking a best of 54.48s in 2021.

But now, with the inter-State Nationals — the main trials to select the Indian team for the World championships and Commonwealth Games — in Chennai coming up (June 10-14), she has managed to improve her time magically.

“I hope to clock 51.35s at the inter-State...that’s the World championship qualifying mark, that’s my target,” Kiran told The Hindu on Tuesday evening.

“I had a hamstring injury last year during training and missed three months. Now, my workouts are good, they have improved. That’s the reason for the good time.”