Indian women's 4x400m relay team, javelin thrower Shivpal fail to qualify for finals

The Indian women's 4x400m relay team finished 11th overall in the first round heats to crash out of the World Championships despite running the season's best here on Saturday.

The quartet of Jisna Mathew, M R Poovamma, V K Vismaya and Venkatesan Subha clocked 3 minutes 29.42 seconds to finish sixth out of eight teams in the heat number one.

The top three in each of the two heats and the next two fastest teams qualify for the finals.

The earlier season's best was 3:31.93 which the Indian team had clocked during the IAAF World Relays in Yokohama, Japan, in May.

India was aiming for an Olympic qualification as the eight finalists get an automatic berth for next year's Tokyo Games.

Earlier, Shivpal Singh also failed to qualify for the finals of the men's javelin throw event as he finished 24th overall in the qualification round.

Shivpal produced a best throw of 78.97m from his three attempts to finish 10th in the Group A qualification round.

The 24-year-old Indian, who has a personal and season's best of 86.23m, opened with a 75.91m before coming up with 78.97m. Shivpal's third attempt was a foul as he crashed out of the championships with a disappointing performance.

Those who touched the automatic qualifying mark of 84m or at least 12 best performers made it to the finals.

Defending champion Johannes Vetter of Germany led the finalists with a best throw of 89.35m.