Athens: India's K M Binu advanced to the men's 400m semi-finals with a new national record in the Olympic Games athletics competition in Athens.

Binu produced a career-best performance to qualify for the semis, clocking 45.48 seconds, which erased the earlier mark by Paramjit Singh, who clocked 45.56 seconds in Chennai in 2000.

Incidentally, Paramjit had broken 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh's 38-year-old record of 45.73s set in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

The 23-year-old's earlier best timing was the 45.59 he clocked in the National Circuit Meet in New Delhi earlier this year that got him a ticket to Athens.

Binu will have to again produce his best in the semi-finals later tonight to enter the final and emulate the likes of Milkha, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa and Sriram Singh.

The first two from each of the three semis and the next two fastest will qualify for the final, which will be held on Monday (Aug 23, 2004).

In heptathlon, J J Sobha was trailing in 12th place, in a field of 34, with 4560 points after five events while Soma Biswas was further behind on the 26th spot (4273).

Leading the pack was world record holder Carolina Kluft of Sweden (5208 points) and Kelly Sotherton of Britain (4879).