thiruvananthapuram bettering national records twice in two days kerala lad muhammed anas sealed his place in the indian athletics contingent for rio olympics participating in the polish national championship at bydgoszcz anas ran the race of his life on saturday to grab gold in mens 400m setting a new national mark of 4540 seconds which was the cutoff mark for rio he pushed former national recordholder arokia rajiv 4560s to second placea day earlier anas had set a national record by clocking 4544 seconds to better the existing time of 4547 seconds by rajiv however anas had missed out on oly qualification by 4100th of a second on friday putting that disappointment behind him the 21yearold returned to better his own record and ensure his maiden entry into olympics this has to be the best moment in my career and it hasnt yet sunk in that i have qualified for olympics i would like to thank my coaches ansar sir and jaikumar sir the lad from nilamel in kollam told toifrom polandanas attended summer camps at mmhss nilamel and it was where he found his mentor b ansar a physical education teacher at the school i realised his potential at a young age i took him to mar basil hss kothamangalam for plus twothat was the time also he lost his father at mar basil they tried him in 400m and 400m hurdles ansar told toi another important person in anas trail to glory is the kerala state sports councils elite academy coach pb jaikumar i am glad to get him at the right time as he wasnt spoilt by stressful school meets i bet he will be the first indian to go under 45 seconds jaikumar said