17-year-old Muhammed Hanan becomes World No. 3 in athletics world rankings

New Delhi, May 13: It is very hard for an Indian athlete to become World No. 3 in the world rankings in athletics. However, this statement was proved wrong when a 17-year-old from Malappuram, Muhammed Hanan, has done just that by clocking the third-best timing in the 110m hurdles in the U-18 boys category in the latest rankings published by World Athletics.

In February, when Hanan took part in the South Zone Junior Athletics Meet at the Calicut University Stadium, he had achieved the feat. He clocked 13.80 seconds to grab the gold medal in the meet. This effort by Hanan had put him just behind South Africans Michael-Jan De Beer and Ismail Mujahid in the latest world rankings released by World Athletics.

 

 

“I didn’t even know such a ranking existed till a few days back. I saw my name on the World Athletics website two or three days back and my joy knew no bounds. My timings have improved over the years and the performance at the Calicut University stadium was my best. But I didn’t realise that it would put me on the list of elite athletes in my age category in the world,” said the plus two student of Devdhar Government Higher Secondary School.

 

 

Following the footsteps of both his elder brothers - Muhammed Harshad and Muhammed Ashique - as both are hurdlers, he took up athletics early. Coming from Tanur in Malappuram district, his brothers totally supported him in every way possible. In fact his brother took him to the Rajiv Gandhi Municipal stadium in Tirur, which has a synthetic track, two years back. The decision has been a turning point in blossoming Hanan’s career.