Unheralded Najimul Hossain Rony broke a 31-year-old record in 400m hurdles of the ongoing National Athletics Championships after clocking 50.84 seconds event at the National Stadium on Tuesday.

The previous record belonged to Bangladesh Navy's Abdur Rahim Nayeem, who had set it in December, 1993 with a timing of 51.87 seconds.

The second day of the championships saw two more records in women's 400m hurdles and women's 4X100 metre relay, with Bangladesh Army leading the medals table with 15 gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze medals while Navy won 13 gold, 12 silver and eight bronze medals.

Najimul, who started his athletics career after getting into Bangladesh Army in 2017, was initially a 400m printer where he won a silver medal in 2023. But he switched to 400m hurdles and won gold in the last edition in 2024.

"I didn't know much about athletics before getting into Bangladesh Army. After completing my basic training in December 2017, I won a gold medal in a hurdles event of inter-unit athletics championships," Najimul said.

"I was confident about eclipsing my previous record and winning gold because I clocked a good time in training and the coach also encouraged me to make it," Najimul said, hoping to do even better at international level, especially in the South Asian Games.

"Whatever timing I produced today is enough to win a medal in the South Asian Games but I believe I can improve further and deliver a gold medal to the nation if I am given better facilities and training," said Najimul, adding that he would buy a pair of running shoes with the cash-award of Tk 20,000 for setting the record.

Meanwhile, Masud Rana of Army and Raibul Islam of Bangladesh Air Force became second and third by clocking 53.06 seconds and 53.26 seconds respectively in the same event.

In women's 400m hurdles, Borsha Khatun of Bangladesh Army clocked 1:04.61 seconds to set a new national record, eclipsing the previous record of 1.04:70 seconds set by Libia Khatun in 2022.

"I was encouraged to see my timings in training. I am really happy with the record," said the 24-year-old, who had previously won a gold medal in the same event. Bangladesh Navy's women's relay team comprising Shirin Akter, Sonia Akter, Sumaya Dewan and Kabita Roy produced a new record in 4X100 relay with a timing of 46.43 seconds, breaking the previous record of 48.10 seconds produced by Bangladesh Army.