Harmilan Bains undergoes knee surgery; out of CWG qualification run and World Athletics Championships-Sports News , Firstpost

File photo of Harmilan Bains. Instagram/Harmilan Bains

India’s young mid-distance runner Harmilan Bains had to undergo knee surgery in Mohali recently, which subsequently forced her out of the upcoming Commonwealth Games qualification run and World Athletics Championships.

The 23-year-old runner, who broke the 1500m national record at the Nationals last year with a timing of 4:05.39 seconds, had to go under the knife recently at Mohali’s Fortis Hospital (operated by orthopaedic specialist Dr. Manit Arora) as she wasn’t recuperating from the injury that kept her away from the track since the beginning of the season.

Speaking to Firstpost, Harmilan says that the operation forced her out of July’s World Championships despite getting an invitation from World Athletics four days ago (a copy of the invitation is with Firstpost).

“This season is over for me as it will take me four months to recover. I was already sent an invitation to go to the World Championships but it won’t be possible in this condition. CWG is scheduled soon after, so that’s gone as well,” she said.

The window for World Championships qualification is open till 26 June, 2022 and Harmilan missed out on a direct qualification spot by about a second as the standard is set at 4:04.20 seconds.

However, if all the spots are not filled out through direct qualification, then athletes are invited for the remaining places based on world rankings and wild card entry.

As far as CWG is concerned, the qualification standard is set at 4:04.17 seconds by the Athletics Federation of India.

The news comes as a big blow for Harmilan, who was looking forward to a busy year with her debut in big-ticket events as she aims for Paris 2024 Olympics. However, the former Khelo India University Games champion is not losing heart as she feels 2023, which includes postponed Asian Games, will help her make up for the losses.

“Of course, the injury couldn’t have come at a worse time as I was only getting better after last season. But with Asian Games now postponed and another World Championships scheduled next year, I can still gain those big tournament experiences. That means I will have to work extra hard next year. For that I need to recover well in these four months, so I won’t rush into getting back on the track,” said Harmilan.

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