Exuding confidence after becoming the first Indian to clock a sub-45 seconds time, quartermiler Vishal T.K. said his positive mindset was the key to his success.

The 22-year-old, who owned the National record (45.12) prior to the Federation athletics meet at the Birsa Munda Stadium (Morabadi) here, rose to the occassion and scripted history by clocking 44.98.

His result was a combination of hard work and manifestation as he pulled out a piece of paper with ‘44 COMING HOME’ written on it.

“I feel proud. I did this for my country. I trained hard, it’s always behind the scenes. Competition is easier..I missed the Commonwealth Games qualification (narrowly). God has some other plans. I’ll work hard and come again,” said Vishal.

Vishal credited his coach Jason Dawson, who’s like a father figure to him, for inculcating a strong mindset in him. “I made up my mind, read my race, visualised it…Visualization is a part of the work. You’ve already run a race in the mind.

“It becomes easier…This is my coach’s mindset which I have. He taught me a lot. I’m still learning from him.

“It’s not about the conditions, it’s about the mindset. I can run on the sea also. We’ve to be positive.”

C. Latha, a former 800m National champion and the secretary of the Tamil Nadu Athletics Association, which supported Vishal in his formative years, was excited. “We expected him to clock 44 seconds at the Indian Open 400m Meet at Thiruvananthapuram (in March). But his coach said Vishal would peak for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

“I expected both Vishal and Rajesh Ramesh, who has been consistent for the last four years, to go below 45. I came with a poster for them but was disappointed. I’m sure both will do 44 at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games and win medals,” said Latha.

Looking at a bigger picture, Vishal liked the keen competition among Indian quartermilers. “India is here to compete. We’re coming. Five of us competed (clocking 45 seconds or less). I’m happy for them. They’re also working hard. Hopefully, next year, 44 will be easier,” said Vishal.

Animesh Kujur and Gurindervir Singh lowered the National 100m record twice, while Asian Games silver medallist long jumper Ancy Sojan rewrote the meet record on the opening day of the Federation athletics meet at the Birsa Munda Stadium (Morabadi) on Friday.

In the conducive evening session, Gurindervir clocked 10.17 to break Kujur’s National record in the semifinals. Within minutes, displaying healthy rivalry, Kujur dashed to regain his record with a mark of 10.15 and attained the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark.

Ancy and her close rival Shaili Singh also exhibited another fine episode of rivalry. Responding to Shaili’s first jump of 6.38m, Ancy logged 6.47 before consistently achieving five 6.5m-plus jumps, including her fourth (6.75m) to erase Shaili’s meet record (6.64m) and win the gold with her personal best. However, she fell short of the CWG qualifying mark by nine cm.

“My first target was to perform without a jump foul. I aim for the Commonwealth (qualification mark),” said Ancy.

Deepak Bhatt ran a well-planned race, going into the lead in the last 70m, to claim his maiden 10,000m title.

Bihar’s Vibhaskar Kumar recorded a stunning 10.36 in the men’s 100m heats and qualified for the Asian under-23 championships.

In the decathlon high jump event, Tejaswin Shankar achieved 2.25m to surpass the CWG mark (2.22m).

The results (finals): Men: 10000m (CWG Q mark 27:39.03): 1. Deepak Bhatt (Utk) 29:42.93, 2. Sailesh Kushwaha (Kar) 29:57.56, 3. Prashant Choudhary (UP) 30:36.97.

Hammer throw (CWG Q mark 73.09m): 1. Ashish Jakhar (SSCB) 68.52m, 2. Damneet Singh (Rel.) 67.62m, 3. Ajay Kumar (Har) 64.93m.

3000m steeplechase (CWG Q mark 8:30.26): 1. Balkishan (Har) 8:56.01, 2. Sharuk Khan (UP) 8:56.63, 3. Sunil Joliya Jinabhai (Guj) 8:58.38.

Women: 10000m (CWG Q mark 31:14.14): 1. Ravina Gayakwad (Mah) 35:40.98, 2. Soniya (Utk) 36:16.22, 3. Aarti Pawara (Mah) 36:24.79.

Long jump (CWG Q mark 6.84m): 1. Ancy Sojan (Navy) 6.75m (MR, Old 6.64, Shaili Singh, 2025), 2. Shaili Singh (Anju Bobby George Academy) 6.58m, 3. Bhavani Yadav (NCOE Bengaluru) 6.39m.

3000m steeplechase (CWG Q mark 9:27.41): 1. Ankita Dhyani (Utk) 9:48.16, 2. Prachi Devkar (IOCL) 10:16.29, 3. Anju (Har) 10:28.23.

Discus (CWG Q mark 56.85m): 1. Seema (JSW) 57.29m, 2. Nidhi Rani (Har) 55.05m, 3. Krishna Jayasankar (Rel.) 55.00m.

Notwithstanding some major withdrawals, a clutch of big names — including Tejaswin Shankar, Animesh Kujur, M. Sreeshankar, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sachin Yadav and Annu Rani — promise to make the 29th National Federation athletics meet a mouth-watering affair.

The event, starting at the Birsa Munda Stadium, Morabadi, here on Friday, is the last qualifying event for the Commonwealth Games. Athletes achieving prescribed qualification marks will be eligible to compete in Glasgow.

World and Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who is nursing injuries, Asian Games champion and Commonwealth Games silver medallist steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who delayed his return from an injury lay-off, Commonwealth Games champion triple jumper Eldhose Paul and Asian Games medallist Parul Chaudhary are some leading names who are skipping the event.

Parul, who clocked an impressive 9:12.84 in the 3000m steeplechase in the Diamond League in China this month, has requested the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to consider her performance for CWG selection.

A maximum of 16 men and as many women athletes can represent the country in the CWG. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) selection committee may use its prerogative to consider some athletes, who take permission and achieve the qualifying mark in ‘recognised events.’

A conducive weather at the peak of summer here enthused the athletes here.

Tejaswin, who trained and competed in the USA for about five months, sounded optimistic. “The weather is good. If I qualify for high jump in decathlon, that will be unprecedented,” said Tejaswin, the National decathlon and high jump record holder who has done 2.26m in high jump and 7947 points in decathlon this season.

Kujur, too, was confident. “I’m focusing on the 200m, that’s my favourite event,” said Kujur.

The event, witnessing the introduction of SRY Gene Test at the domestic level, will also serve as the qualifying event for the Asian under-23 championships.

The sixth leg of the Indian Athletics Series, beginning at the Nehru Stadium here on Sunday and part of the 16-leg nationwide circuit running from April to September, will be a huge preparatory exercise for athletes like star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar and others.

The Athletics Federation of India has made participation mandatory in a minimum of two domestic meets to be considered for the National Federation Cup in Ranchi from May 22 to 25 (it is the final selection trials for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to be held in July-August). For the 27-year-old Sreeshankar the meet assumes significance and he is keen to perform well here.

“Heading up to Federation Cup and rest of the season, so obviously the target is to be in good shape for the main events including the CWG and Asian Games. I am looking forward to a good performance here,” he told presspersons after his training session on Saturday.

Sreeshankar, a silver medallist in the 2022 CWG, said the training stint recently in South Africa was quite competitive and is bound to help him in future events.

“I trained for three weeks in the North West Academy of Sport in Potchefstroom, South Africa and did 8.12m in a meet in Pretoria. The cold weather in South Africa and Glasgow CWG will be similar, which might help me,” he said.

While there has been a lot of talk on the Indian men’s hockey team’s composition for the upcoming World Cup and the Asian Games, not many have spoken about the same for the women. In fact, their schedule is much tighter, with the Nations Cup also scheduled in June before the two big events.

The Nations Cup is equally important for the Indian women to try and earn back its spot in the FIH Pro league. Add to it the fact that coach Sjoerd Marijne, returning after five years to take charge in very different conditions and the challenge becomes manifold. Marijne, however, is unperturbed by it all.

“It was the same in 2018, and we also had the Commonwealth Games back then, so we had four tournaments. And we worked from tournament to tournament with the Asian Games for us being most important but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to do well at the others,” Marijne said during an interaction with select media on Friday.

“We’re using them to be at our best but I believe we can perform in every tournament and it doesn’t matter for the next one. We played the quarterfinals at the 2018 World Cup but then we also did really good at the Asian Games, winning silver. So that’s the way we’re going to do.”

The recent four-match outing against Argentina was important for the Dutchman to assess the players in competition and Marijne, while admitting there were quite a few areas to work on, was optimistic about the improvements in the side.

“I think we are moving in the right direction. I’m not talking only about winning or losing, because I didn’t play any penalty corner variations. We were training different kind of systems and I think the progress in that has been really positive.

“For us, the important thing was the benchmark set by Argentina. And you know now what is required to be able to play against the World No. 2 and be successful. The good thing was that we improved every match. And they struggled sometimes with our speed, that is something I’m quite happy with,” he explained.

While Marijne has a problem of too many tournaments, the newly-appointed junior women’s coach Tim White has little to no international assignment through the year, giving him enough time to understand and work on the team.

With Indian women’s hockey players often straddling both the senior and junior teams, White and Marijne have taken to working together during national camps to build a synergy between the sides.

“I accepted the job because I always saw India as having a lot of potential to be a really world-class team and the challenge of helping the team get to that point and also supporting the seniors is exciting,” White said in his first media interaction since taking charge.

“For any team to have sustainable success, you have to have a good collaboration between the senior and junior programmes. I’m already working with Sjoerd, we’re in the same environment, we share a lot.”

White, however, did admit that the group’s fitness was below-par. “I’ve observed that the group is lower physically than where I was in Belgium or even in Australia.

“We are going to have to work hard to be able to compete with the best junior teams and also have a flow of athletes going into the senior programme. I need to make sure I help the group understand what level of intensity they need to train at. But it’s a challenge in India for sure.”