\u201cIt was a do or die situation for me. It was one last domestic race to showcase my potential. I badly wanted to win gold here in Goa,\u201d said the 23-years-old from Vadodara after winning the National Games men\u2019s 400m title.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goakhabar-com.preview.jikut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/397535016_827240692741650_650649008186195986_n-1-192x300.jpg\")
#ADVT 37 \u0935\u094d\u092f\u093e \u0930\u093e\u0937\u094d\u091f\u094d\u0930\u0940\u092f \u0915\u094d\u0930\u0940\u0921\u093e \u0938\u094d\u092a\u0930\u094d\u0927\u0947\u091a\u094d\u092f\u093e 5 \u0928\u094b\u0935\u094d\u0939\u0947\u0902\u092c\u0930 2023 \u091a\u0947 \u0935\u0947\u0933\u093e\u092a\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0915<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t able to qualify for both Asian Athletics Championships or the Hangzhou Asian Games and it was mentally very taxing,\u201d said Utekar, explaining the reason behind his desperation.<\/p>\n
In the 400m hurdle finals at the Bambolim Athletics stadium, he was chased down by Nikhil Bhardwaj of Services in the home straight but managed to cross the finish line ahead of his rivals.\u00a0 His gold medal winning time was 51.20 seconds, while Bhardwaj clocked 51.50 seconds for silver. Vijay Singh Malik (Services) finished third with a time of 51.67 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 400m hurdles title in the season ending competition will add to my confidence,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goakhabar-com.preview.jikut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IMG-20231102-WA0036-1-300x120.jpg\")
ADVT :\u0926\u0940\u092a\u093e\u0935\u0932\u0940 \u0928\u093f\u092e\u093f\u0924\u094d\u0924 \u091c\u0917\u093e\u0924\u0940\u0932 \u0938\u0930\u094d\u0935\u093e\u0924 \u092e\u094b\u0920\u0940 9 \u0935\u0940 \u0905\u0916\u093f\u0932 \u0917\u094b\u0935\u093e \u0906\u0915\u093e\u0936 \u0915\u0902\u0926\u0940\u0932 \u0938\u094d\u092a\u0930\u094d\u0927\u093e 10 \u0928\u094b\u0935\u094d\u0939\u0947\u0902\u092c\u0930 2023 \u0930\u094b\u091c\u0940 \u092a\u0930\u094d\u0930\u093e \u092f\u0947\u0925\u0947.\u0905\u0916\u093f\u0932 \u0917\u094b\u0935\u093e \u092c\u0930\u094b\u092c\u0930 \u0915\u0933\u0902\u0917\u0941\u091f \u0906\u0923\u093f \u0936\u093f\u0935\u094b\u0932\u0940 \u092e\u0924\u0926\u093e\u0930 \u0938\u0902\u0918\u093e\u0924\u0940\u0932 \u0935\u093f\u091c\u0947\u0924\u094d\u092f\u093e\u0902\u0928\u093e \u092e\u093f\u0933\u0923\u093e\u0930 \u0939\u091c\u093e\u0930\u094b \u0930\u0942\u092a\u092f\u093e\u0902\u091a\u0940 \u092c\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0940\u0938\u0947..\u0938\u0939\u092d\u093e\u0917\u0940 \u0935\u094d\u0939\u093e..\u092c\u0915\u094d\u0937\u0940\u0938\u0947 \u091c\u093f\u0902\u0915\u093e!<\/p><\/div>\n
Utekar said now he was looking ahead to an opportunity to make it to the national camp as he was unable to practice on his own in the past two years.<\/p>\n
Seven Summers ago, Utterkar was among several teenagers scouted during talent search in Gujarat. Joining the Indian Air Force in 2020, further gave him a chance to pursue sports.<\/p>\n
He made good progress in the 2021-2022 season, but was off the mark in the 2023 season. His personal best of 50.55 seconds was clocked last year in a domestic competition.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goakhabar-com.preview.jikut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/345059998_194276443452193_7616246637763085377_n-300x300.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goakhabar-com.preview.jikut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/344915942_790444535804605_2288899076107171204_n-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Based out of Hindon at the Indian Air Force (IAF) Station near Delhi, the National Games champion said he has limited resources at his disposal and can\u2019t make good progress.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is difficult to achieve macro or micro goals set for the month or week if the facilities are limited,\u201d he said adding that the National Games would hopefully open up avenues for him to polish his skills further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Goa Khabar:\u00a0Gujarat\u2019s promising 400m hurdler Dhaval Utekar had only one thought when he landed in Goa for the 37th National Games. He wanted to finish ahead of competition in the 400m hurdles and end the domestic season on a high. \u201cIt was a do or die situation for me. It was one last domestic race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":91421,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,6],"tags":[3794],"class_list":["post-91420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-155","category-6","tag-featured"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91420"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91423,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91420\/revisions\/91423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}