Chennai, Aug 21: Tamil Nadu quarter-miler Vishal Thennarasu Kayalvizhi on Thursday smashed the men’s 400m national record while winning gold with a time of 45.12 seconds on the second day of the National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships here on Thursday.
The 21-year-old ran a stunning race to leave behind his rivals way behind at the finishing line to cement his status as the numero uno quarter-miler of the country. He bettered the previous national record of 45.21 seconds which was in the name of Muhammed Anas since 2029.
Vishal’s earlier best was 45.57 seconds while finishing fourth at the 2025 Asian Championships in May in South Korea where he was a member of India’s gold-winning mixed 4x400m relay team and silver-winning men’s 4x400m relay quartet.
With his 45.12 seconds timing after a scorching run, Vishal became the fourth fastest Asian 400m runner of the season, behind Yuki Joseph Nakajima (44.84 seconds) of Japan, Ammar Ismail Ibrahim (44.90 seconds) of Qatar and Liukai Liu (45.06 seconds) of China.
He, though, was well behind the automatic World Championships qualification time of 44.85 seconds.
Seasoned Rajesh Ramesh, also of Tamil Nadu, was second with 46.04 seconds while Haryana’s Vikrant Panchal was third with 46.17 seconds.
Vishal has been on a meteoric rise in his short career which he began in 2022 only. He began running individual 400m race only in 2024 with 46.77 seconds being the best of that year.
This year, he rose to become the country’ premier quartermiler, winning the Federation Cup National Championships title in April with a time of 46.19 seconds.
His best moment came on August 10 when he won 400m gold in the World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level meet in Bhubaneswar with a time of 45.72 seconds. (PTI)
