Anjali Devi and the intriguing case of India's women’s 400m runners

Anjali Devi last competed in a 400m race in 2019, the year she made heads turn with a personal best of 51.53s and qualified for the world championships. After that burst, Devi all but disappeared from the national scene, taking part only in a couple of meets, competing in the 200m.

On Thursday, Anjali finally returned to 400m action and caught the eye, yet again. In her first race, she not only made a stunning return but even qualified for the Asian Games with a timing of 52.89s in the heats in hot and humid conditions at the Kalinga Stadium. AFI had set the qualification mark as 52.96s. Anjali said she was nursing an injury and doing rehab in the national camp in Trivandrum. Anjali was competing on a ‘wild card’ as she had been out of the domestic circuit for more than three years, and she said she started training in full swing only in May.

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On the day, she was faster than Aishwarya Mishra -- the best Indian (52.85s in Federation Cup) this season. Mishra clocked 53.84s in the third heat on Thursday. The next best in the heats was R Vithiya Ramraj (52.97sec.)

There was also 14-year-old rising star Rezoana Heena Mallick -- who broke the Youth Asian Championships record this season (52.98s). Rezoana clocked 55.20sec in what was her first senior-level domestic competition.

"There was a stress fracture in my gluteus. Last year, I had a foot injury and entire year I was out. I was struggling with injuries and again in February this year I was injured (gluteus). I was treated under Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala. It didn’t require surgery. I was in the camp and doing my rehab. I started full training from May first week. Today was my first 400m race in three years," said Anjali.

"It was a tough period and once I recovered, I trained very hard. Time was less to qualify for the Asian Games and I had to make the most of it," she added.

Chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair said Anjali was first injured in 2019. "She was very good in 2019. There was a GP in which she ran 200m, and the very next time she got her muscle torn during practice. Then she had to go through a long treatment," said Nair.

At the time, Anjali's inconsistent progress made the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) make her take a confirmatory selection trial before clearing her for the Worlds. Her injury before the Tokyo Olympics had depleted the women's relay team after Hima Das had drifted away to 200m with a 'back injury'. The women's relay team did not qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

That's been the intriguing story of women quarter-milers in India, especially in the last few seasons. Injuries, inconsistent runs, sudden resurgence and even doping violations -- many factors have led to the gradual decline in an event (women's 4x400m relay) that has provided the country five consecutive gold medals at the Asian Games since 2002.

It has come to a stage where AFI is finding it difficult to assemble four sprinters to make a relay team that can keep India's glowing tradition alive at the Hangzhou Asian Games this year.

In the 2018 Asian Games, the quartet of Hima, MR Poovamma, Saritaben Gayakwad and VK Vismaya had won gold with a timing of 3:28.72s. That team has since disintegrated. Poovamma is undergoing a two-year suspension for testing positive for stimulant Methylhexaneamine at the Indian Grand Prix meet in 2021. Another quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran, who competed at the Rio Olympics, made a return on Thursday at Inter-State here, after serving a four-year doping ban.

There were hopes that juniors like Rupal Chaudhary, who won bronze in U20 World Championships in Cali in 2022, and Priya Mohan, who came 4th in U20 Worlds in Kenya in 2021 and also won medals in mixed relay, will be ready before the Asian Games. But both were missing from the action here. Mohan, who had a personal best of 52.37s last year, is reportedly injured. Rupal has not competed this season.

Also, Aishwarya, who surprised with a personal best of 51.18s last year, had a similar drop in performance level. In five competitions this year, her best effort has been 52.85sec.

Chief coach Nair agrees the 400m team is not shaping up well before the Asian Games. “Most coaches are pushing young talents into the 400m at a young age. There is a lot of money, rewards, and awards for coaches also. They are being overtrained. Where is Rupal now? She ran five races last year and she is a junior world championships medallist. They need to be trained properly. You cannot have early specialisation at the age of 14. That's the reason why we have removed 400m in under-14 and under-16 competitions,” he says.

He said AFI is having a lot of discussion on the women's 4x400m relay team because. “Certainly, our stock in the national team is not that good enough to win a gold in the relay but I expect some more athletes will be joining us after the Inter-State and then we will plan for the Asian Games .”

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