India's quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran punches ticket for Rio Olympics

Indian quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran on Friday secured her Rio Olympics berth after clocking an impressive 51.48 seconds in the women's 400 metre category in the National Inter-State Senior Athletics championships at the G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday.

The Haryana-based athlete recorded her personal best time to surpass the Olympic qualification mark of 52.20s.

P T Usha's trainee, Jisna Mathew (53.14 seconds) and Tamil Nadu's P N Souwndharya (53.85 seconds) bagged the other medals of the day.

With her qualification, Sheoran became India's sixth entrant in the women's athletics category after Dutee Chand (100 metre), Srabani Nanda (200 metre), Tintu Lukka (400 metre), Lalita Babar and Sudha Singh (3000 metre steeplechase). 

Photograph: Reuters