India, April 24 -- After flirting with Amlan Borgohain's 200m national record of 20.52s for much of last season, Animesh Kujur finally ran the fastest half lap by an Indian on Thursday, in the process defending his crown at the ongoing National Federation Athletics Championship in Kochi and making the cut for this year's Asian Championships for which the qualifying mark stood at 20.53s.

Coming into the race as one of the primary challengers to the erstwhile national record of 20.52s -- set in the same competition three years back -- the 21-year-old Kujur clocked an impressive 20.40s to finish ahead of Borgohain (20.80s) and Ragul Kumar (20.85s). This is also the first time in six attempts that Kujur has beaten Borgohain in a World Athlet...