Asian Indoor Athletics C'ships: Who is Ankita Dhyani? The long-distance runner who claimed India's fourth medal in Tehran

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India's medal count increased to four at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships 2024 as Ankita Dhyani claimed a silver medal at the Aftab e Enghelab Sports Complex in Tehran on Monday (February 19).

Ankita Dhyani clocked a 9:26.22 at the long-distance event while Japan's Yuma Yamamoto won the gold medal by a distance of close to 10 seconds (9:26.22). The medal came on the final day of the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships while India won three gold medals on Day 1.

This is first major medal for Ankita Dhyani, who mostly runs the 5000m and 1500m events in the outdoor events and won the Khelo India gold medals in both the categories back-to-back two years in 2019 and 2020.

Born in Marod village in the Pauri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand, Ankita;s talent was identified when she used to run with the big boys training for Army selection in her village. Training at a high altitude of 1400m, conducive for long-distance running, helped her develop her abilities.

Competing at the junior level, Ankita Dhyani booked her spot in the World U-20 Athletics Championships in 2021 by winning gold medal in 1500m and 5000m at the Federation Cup U-20 Championships in Sangrur in January that year. She subsequently finished 8th in Nairobi at Worlds U-20.

She earlier broke the U-20 National Record at the Junior Nationals in Guwahati, where she clocked 16:21.19 while erasing the previous record by Sunita Rani at 16:21.59. She also won her first senior national medal in the year with a bronze medal at the Inter-State in Patiala (16:58.07).

2022 saw her switch to senior-level alltogether and saw her bag 10000m gold medal at the Open Nationals in Bengaluru (34:39.95). She also bagged the silver in the 1500m throughout all the domestic events, including National Games, Federation Cup, Inter-State and Inter-Railways.

In 2023, Ankita Dhyani went to the USA for a training camp under USA's acclaimed long-distance coach Scott Simmons, who also trained famed Indian athletes Avinash Sable, Parul Chaudhary, Jinson Johnson among others.

She competed in the indoor season for the first time while training in the USA as she participated in the Ed Murphy Classic, where she finished fourth (8:59.69) in the 3000m. Focus switched more on the 5000m for the outdoor season and the result followed with gold medals in Federation Cup, National Open and two Indian Grands Prix.

Her first international success followed in the same year as she clinched bronze medal at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok with a timing of 16.03.33. Her personal best of 15:33.03 came at the Asian Games in Hagzhou, where she finished fifth.

2024 is a crucial year of Ankita Dhyani in her bid to qualify for Paris Olympics as the qualification mark requires her to improve her personal best by more than 40 seconds with the standard set at 14:52.00. For 1500m, the qualification mark is 4:02.50 seconds while her personal best is a 4:16.07. The last date for qualification is set at June 30, 2024.