World Championship Dreams And Injury Recovery: Parul Chaudhary's Focus For 2025

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The last two years have been exceptional for Parul Chaudhary. She won two medals at the Asian Athletics Championships last year, followed by a historic performance at the World Championships, where she qualified for the finals with a time of 9:15.31, breaking Lalita Babar's national record of 9:19.76 set during the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The cherry on top came when she won two medals at the Asian Games: A gold in the 5000m and a silver in the 3000m steeplechase. "Not much has changed, but yes, now everyone recognizes me," Parul said exclusively to myKhel.

"Everyone comes up to me and says, 'I watched your race at the Asian Games, the 5000m race was really impressive.' It felt great when I won two medals for India at the Asian Games. I want to do even better. The 2026 Asian Games and Commonwealth Games are coming up, and I want to perform well there."

At the Paris Olympics, Parul Chaudhary recorded her season's best time in the 3000m steeplechase qualification but did not make it to the final. She also failed to qualify for the 5000m final. Competing at the Stade de France, she finished eighth in her 3000m steeplechase heat with a season-best time of 9:23.39.

After the Paris Olympics, Parul participated in only one competition in Germany, and due to an injury, that was her last competition of the season. Speaking about her performance at the Paris Olympics, the Meerut athlete said, "My practice was good for the Paris Olympics, but at that time, I had a slight hamstring injury, which was causing me some problems. In the 5000m, I was very close to my personal best, just a few microseconds away from beating it."

The national record holder, Parul, is still dealing with her hamstring injury and plans to make a comeback in December when she will participate in a marathon.

"Right now, it's the off-season, but yes, I started some practice 10-15 days ago. I won't repeat the mistakes I made last season. This time, I need to focus on my injury because it caused me a lot of trouble last season. I will focus more on strength training and work on recovering from my injury." She added.

"Yes, if I do longer training sessions, it causes problems. I want to participate in a marathon, and after that, I will focus on healing my injury."

Speaking about her target for the next season, Parul said that her sole focus will be the World Championships, which will take place in Japan. She also aims to improve her personal bests.

"My sole focus for the next season will be the World Championships. Yes, the Asian Championships are also there, but my main focus will be the World Championships. I will try to better my personal best, and I believe I can achieve 9:12 in the next season," the Arjuna awardee signed off.