CHENNAI: India's middle and long distance runner Ankita Dhyani clocked a personal best time to finish second in the women's 1500m race at the Stumptown Twilight event in Portland, United States of America early on Sunday. The 24-year-old Ankita clocked 4:06.75s in the World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger level meet (Category D). She improved upon her previous personal best by more than five seconds. Her previous personal best was 4:12.28s. It was also the fastest time for an Indian so far in the season over the distance and the third fastest in Asia.
Ankita's time was also the fourth fastest ever by an Indian. The national record in the event is in the name of KM Deeksha with a time of 4:04.78s.
Carmen Alder Caisalitin of Ecuador took the top spot with a time of 4:06.40s while Eleanor Fulton of USA was third with 4:09.36s. Ankita had won a 5000m bronze in the 2023 Asian Championships and a 3000m silver in the 2024 Asian Indoor Championships. She also took part in the 5,000m race in both the 2022 Asian Games and 2024 Paris Olympics.
She had finished second behind Parul Chaudhary in the 1500m race in the National Inter-State Championships in June, while she won the 3000m steeplechase event with 9:44.05s, which is the better than the 2026 Asian Games qualification time of 9:47.53s set by the Athletics Federation of India.