Harmilan Kaur Bains has given Mahilpur and Hoshiarpur district a memorable place in modern Indian middle-distance running. Her two Asian Games silver medals and record-breaking 1,500m performance are achievements worth recording with their exact dates.
Two silvers at Hangzhou
At the Hangzhou Asian Games held in 2023—the postponed 2022 edition—Harmilan won silver in both the women’s 800m and 1,500m. The official Games results list her second in each event. The double required success across two distances with different tactical demands.
The national record she set in 2021
On 16 September 2021, at the National Open Athletics Championships in Warangal, she ran 1,500m in 4:05.39. That broke Sunita Rani’s 4:06.03 Indian record from 2002, a mark that had stood for 19 years. Harmilan’s performance should be described as a national record set in 2021, rather than as the current record: an AFI competition document from June 2026 lists Deeksha’s 4:04.78, achieved in May 2024, as the national mark.
An athletics family in Mahilpur
Harmilan’s mother, Madhuri Singh, won the 800m silver at the 2002 Busan Asian Games. Her father, Amandeep Bains, also represented India in middle-distance running; contemporary reporting records his 1,500m silver at the 1996 South Asian Games. Their family connection with Mahilpur is an important part of the district’s sporting story, while Harmilan’s own results establish her individual place in it.
A local story with international reach
Harmilan’s career shows how the sporting traditions of a family and a town can meet an athlete’s own ambition. For Hoshiarpur’s readers, the verified milestones provide a stronger tribute than superlatives: two continental medals, a significant national record and a continuing place in the history of Indian athletics.