Telangana’s Deepthi sets new games record in women’s 400m T20 final

Telangana para athlete Deepthi Jeevanji successfully defended her women's 400m T20 title at the Para Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, winning gold with a new Games record of 56.36 seconds.

Hyderabad: Telangana’s Deepthi Jeevanji scripted history winning a gold in the women’s 400m T-20 category final of the on-going Para Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya (Japan), in the process setting a new Games record with a timing of 56.36 seconds.

With this stunning performance, the 23-year-old athlete from Telangana, a TOPS athlete, defended her gold, improving her timing of 56.69 second in 2026, an improvement of 0.23 seconds.

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Niina Kanno (58.92s) and Akane Kato (1:00.26), both from Japan, settled for silver and bronze respectively.

Deepthi, mentored by SAI athletics coach Nagapuri Ramesh since she was 15, has been a consistent performer at various meets at the State, National and International levels.

Her first major breakthrough on the international arena was when she won a bronze in the 2019 Asian youth championship and bagged a ‘double’ winning the 100m and the 200m events at the 2019 Khelo India Youth Games.

The high point for the spirited Deepthi was when she clinched a silver in the 2024 Paralympics and a world championship gold with a world record. She also won a silver in last year’s World Championships.