Indian athletics finds itself on the verge of another major breakthrough this time, in one of its most technically demanding events: the men’s 400m hurdles.
Two Indian hurdlers, Yashas Palaksha and Ruchit Mori have run sub-50 seconds in the same season, establishing a new era of competitive excellence. Their performances in 2025 have reignited talk of an assault on Dharun Ayyasamy’s long-standing national record of 48.80 seconds, set in 2019.
The numbers suggest that this record, once thought untouchable, is now within reach. Palaksha’s 49.22s and Mori’s 49.76s represent not only personal milestones but the collective progress of an event that has quietly evolved into one of India’s most promising Olympic disciplines.
The Record to Beat: Dharun’s 48.80s Benchmark
When Dharun Ayyasamy clocked 48.80 seconds at the 2019 Federation Cup in Patiala, it was a watershed moment. It was India’s first and only sub-49 performance a time that placed Dharun on the fringes of global relevance, just 0.10 seconds off the Paris 2024 Olympic qualification mark.
What made Dharun’s run exceptional was not just raw speed but technical precision. His 400m flat personal best (46.10s) and hurdles time (48.80s) yield a Technical Index (TI) the time lost due to hurdles of 2.70 seconds. Globally, elite hurdlers typically record TI values between 3.0 and 3.5 seconds. Dharun’s 2.70s confirmed world-class efficiency: minimal loss per hurdle and optimized stride rhythm across all ten barriers.
This is the gold standard for any Indian attempting to break the record. To succeed, the next generation must either run faster than Dharun’s 46.10s flat speed or match his exceptional technical rhythm.
Yashas Palaksha: The Tier 1 Prospect with Untapped Speed
At 23, Yashas Palaksha stands as India’s most complete 400m hurdler since Dharun. His 2025 season showcased consistency, maturity, and signs of unexplored potential. His 49.22s at the Taiwan Athletics Open in June, following a 49.32s win at the Federation Cup, was not an isolated peak but part of a steady progression curve. The mere 0.10s gap between his top two timings highlights his ability to reproduce high performance a crucial trait in elite competition.
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Yet, the most fascinating aspect of Palaksha’s profile lies in a technical anomaly: his 400m flat personal best stands at 47.45s, which gives him an unusually low TI of 1.77 seconds (49.22 – 47.45). Such a number is biomechanically improbable, suggesting his flat time underrepresents his actual speed potential.
When adjusted to a realistic 400m flat estimate of 46.50s, his corrected TI becomes 2.72 seconds nearly identical to Dharun’s efficiency. In other words, Palaksha’s hurdle technique already operates at near-record efficiency; he simply needs to validate and enhance his base speed. The data shows that improving his flat speed by 0.9 seconds could translate directly into a sub-48.80s performance. It’s a rare scenario where the path to the national record doesn’t lie in refining technique, but in maximizing velocity.
Palaksha’s inclusion in India’s 4x400m relay training pool offers the perfect ecosystem for this leap. The relay program emphasizes high-speed endurance and anaerobic conditioning, both of which directly enhance hurdling velocity. With targeted work on his 400m acceleration and finishing splits, the 48.70s window looks increasingly achievable by next season.
Ruchit Mori: The Comeback Story of the Season
If Palaksha’s rise represents calculated consistency, Ruchit Mori’s story is one of resilience and resurgence. After enduring a three-year injury layoff, Mori’s return to elite form in 2025 was nothing short of remarkable.
Clocking 49.76s in August 2025, he became only the second Indian this year and the fifth ever to break 50 seconds. The timing reflected an extraordinary 1.34-second improvement from his comeback time of 51.10s in 2024, underscoring both physiological recovery and technical refinement. At 24, Mori’s Technical Index (approx. 2.26s) shows exceptional barrier efficiency. His current limitation isn’t technique — it’s raw speed and endurance. His 200m personal best of 21.71s projects a potential 400m flat time near 47.5s, which explains why his progress has been linear rather than explosive.
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To reach Dharun’s 48.80s, Mori must shave off nearly one full second a demanding physiological task that typically spans multiple seasons. The key lies in building his speed endurance the ability to sustain velocity through hurdles seven to ten and into the home straight, where most athletes experience the sharpest deceleration.
His focus next year will likely be consolidation stabilizing sub-49.50 performances, and expanding his capacity before mounting a record challenge in 2027. With proper load management and injury prevention, Mori’s trajectory positions him as a long-term threat to the record once his flat speed improves toward the 46.5s range.
The Technical Equation: Speed vs. Efficiency
Breaking 48.80s is no longer about unlocking secrets it’s about balancing biomechanics and endurance.
To achieve a sub-49 performance, an athlete must combine:
- 400m flat capability of 46.0–46.5 seconds, and
- TI efficiency is below 2.80 seconds, meaning hurdle losses of under 0.28 s per barrier.
The defining stretch is between hurdles 7 and 10, where velocity decay must be minimized. Both Palaksha and Mori must sustain a 14-stride pattern through this section; reverting to 15 strides (a double stepdown) disrupts rhythm and leads to critical momentum loss.
For Palaksha, maintaining technical form under high speed is the next frontier; for Mori, expanding his energy system endurance to preserve stride length will determine his ceiling.
Bridging the Gap: Training the Sub-49 Athlete
Reaching 48.80s requires a dual focus on absolute speed and fatigue resistance. The following training priorities will define India’s next phase of hurdling evolution:
- Speed Validation and Measurement
Palaksha must undergo verified 400m flat trials under competitive conditions. This will quantify his true speed reserve and calibrate his training load accurately. - Hurdle-Specific Endurance Training
Both athletes need race-pace repetitions over hurdles 7–10 the segment where lactic buildup destroys form. Interval sessions such as 350 m hurdle runs and 150m finish sprints are essential for refining mechanics under exhaustion. - International Exposure
Competing regularly on the World Athletics Continental Tour against 48-second runners will condition race pacing and tactical adaptation the final step toward global competitiveness.
The Road Ahead
India’s 400m hurdles revival mirrors the country’s broader athletics transformation science-backed, data-driven, and performance-oriented.
With Palaksha just 0.42 seconds off the record and Mori under one second behind, the next 12 months could redefine national standards. Predictive modeling places Palaksha in a 48.70–49.00s range (65% probability) next season, while Mori is forecasted to consolidate at 49.00–49.30s (30% probability). If these projections hold, India could soon boast not one but two sub-49 hurdlers a milestone that would make the event competitive at the Asian Championships, Commonwealth Games, and even World Athletics level.
For now, the chase for 48.80s continues not as a distant dream, but as a tangible goal within striking distance. And when it finally falls, it will symbolize more than a national record. It will mark the arrival of India as a legitimate player in one of track and field’s most demanding disciplines.
