Joseph Abraham, who is also known as Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham is an Indian athlete hailing from Kerala. He is an Indian track and field athlete.
Joseph Abraham was born on 11th September 1981. He holds the current 400 metre hurdles national record of 49.51 seconds set during the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka on 26 August 2007.
Joseph Abraham became the first Indian male athlete to clear the opening round of an event in the World Athletics Championships in Osaka when he reached the 400m hurdles semi-finals. Joseph Abraham also won the 400m hurdles gold medal at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
Joseph Abraham was born in Kottayam district of Kerala. Joseph Abraham made a steady progress in intermediate hurdles. The first sub-52 of Joseph Abraham came in 2003 and in the following year he clocked a time of 51.98 seconds.
The best time in 2005 for Joseph Abraham was 50.87 seconds hurdles. His first national record came at the 2006 National inter-State athletics championship in Chennai. Joseph Abraham broke the existing national record of 50.39 seconds held by Patlavath Shankar with a time of 50.22 seconds.
On 12 May 2007 at 13th Federation Cup Athletics Championship in Kolkata, Joseph Abraham broke his own 400m hurdles record in 50.04 seconds to win the gold medal. The first sub-50 performance of Joseph Abraham came in the Guwahati Asian Grand Prix circuit athletics in June 2007.
Joseph Abraham won the silver by setting the new national record of 49.52 seconds while coming second behind Chinese Meng Yan.
In June 2009, Joseph Abraham achieved the qualifying norm of 49.80 seconds for the Berlin World Championships, at the Indian Grand Prix meet in Chennai by clocking 49.59 seconds.
Later in the same year, Joseph Abraham won the Silver medal in 400meters hurdles, with a time of 49.96 seconds at the 2009 Asian Championships in Athletics held at Guangzhou, China.
On 25 November 2010, Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham became the first Indian track and field athlete to win individual Gold Medal at 400 meters hurdles at any Asian Games. There Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham also won the gold medal at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games clocking a time of 49.96 seconds.
Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham also competes in the 400meters sprint. The personal best of Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham was for the 400 metres, which he completed in 46.70 seconds. This made Joseph Ganapathiplackal Abraham chair himself in the crown of Open National Athletics Championships in New Delhi, which was held in the year 2006.
