Germany, Jul 27: With a personal-best time of 9:31.99 seconds, Indian athlete Ankita Dhyani delivered a sensational performance at the World University Games in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, securing silver in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.

Ankita, a second-year social sciences student, finished second behind Finland's Ilona Maaria Mononen, who timed 9:31.86.

The 23-year-old had earlier topped her heat with a time of 9:54.79. Her final lap sprint nearly overtook the leader, showcasing grit and determination.

Adia Budde of Germany took the bronze, clocking 9:33.34 seconds.

On the other hand, the Indian women's 4x400m relay team came up with a season's best time of 3:35.08 seconds, but finished fifth, clocking 3:35.08 seconds.

The German team, despite a poor reaction time, won the gold with a time of 3:29.68 seconds.

Indian athletes, traditionally strong in the relay events, will get a chance to further better their medals tally when they compete in the men's 4x400m and 4x100m, and women's 4x100m relay events.

Indian race walkers, however, had a dismal showing, with none of them even finishing in the top-10 in the men's and women's sections, though a few came up with personal or season best timings.

Rahul clocked a season's best 1:26:34 seconds but finished 20th in the men's 20km race walk final with the gold going to Andrea Cosi of Italy with a World University Games record of 1:19:48 seconds.

Gaurav Kumar (1:28:44) was 25th, Sachin Singh Bohra (1:32:03) 28th and Sanjay Kumar (1:46:21) finished last among 31 competitors.

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