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Star Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar failed to qualify for the finals in the World Championships with a 14th place finish in his qualification group as the country's athletes continued their disappointing performance here on Monday. Competing in his third World Championships, Sreeshankar could only produce a best jump of 7.78m in his three attempts in Group A qualification round, in one of his worst performances in more than three years. He ended 25th overall out of 37 competitors. Those who touched automatic qualifying mark 8.15m or at least the best 12 places across the two groups made it to the finals. He has had just two jumps worse than Monday's 7.78m since March 2022. Ironically, one of the two was a 7.74m during the qualification round of the 2023 edition of the showpiece, and now he has failed to qualify for the finals of a World Championships for the second consecutive time. The 26-year-old had made it to the finals in the 2022 edition in Eugene, USA, finishing ...
Uttar Pradesh's international javelin thrower Rohit Yadav clinched the men's javelin throw gold medal at the National Inter-Sate Athletics Championships to keep himself in contention for a berth in next month's World Championships in Tokyo through world ranking quota, here on Sunday. Star long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who needed to breach the qualifying mark of 8.27m for a direct entry to the World Championships, could not do so as he produced a best effort of 8.06m, which was, though, enough for him to win a gold. On the fifth and final day of the championships, the 24-year-old Rohit grabbed the men's javelin title with a best throw of 83.65m which he achieved in his third attempt. Sachin Yadav, also of Uttar Pradesh, was a close second with a distance of 83.20m, while Maharashtra's promising thrower Shivam Lohakare was third with 80.20m. Yashvir Singh of Rajasthan, who is also in the race to win a berth for Tokyo World Championships through world ranking quota, finished fourth
From a high of 28 Indians taking part in the 2023 World Championships in Hungary where star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra won a gold, barely 15 athletes from the country are likely to feature in the showpiece in Tokyo next month. With the country not expected to qualify for the relay races, the number of Indians taking part in the World Championships has reduced in a big way. In 2023, India had named seven quarter-milers for the men's 4x400m relay and the quartet smashed the then existing Asian record and made it to its maiden final, finishing a creditable fifth in the end. Just like the last edition, at least three Indians are likely to compete in the men's javelin throw event in Tokyo also. The number may increase to four also, if Rohit Yadav, who won the gold in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai on Sunday, move up the ladder in the world ranking quota. Besides Chopra, who has already received a wild card by virtue of being the defending champion, Sachin Yadav and
Tamil Nadu's Dhanalakshmi Sekar grabbed her third gold of the meet with her 200m title while men's counterpart Animesh Kujur of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh javelin thrower Annu Rani won their respective events to share the spotlight at the National Inter-State Championships here Saturday. The 27-year-old Dhanalakshmi, who served a doping ban till early this year, ran 23.53 seconds to take the women's 200m gold on the fourth and penultimate day of the meet at the JLN Stadium here. Shivani Saini (24.04 seconds) of Uttar Pradesh and Sakshi Chavan (24.05 seconds) of Gujarat were second and third respectively. Dhanalakshmi has earlier won gold in the 100m dash and 4x100m relay. Meanwhile, Kujur and Annu brightened their chances of making it to next month's World Championships in Tokyo with their wins. Running in lane six, the 22-year-old Kujur rocketed off the blocks and smoothly negotiated the curve to cross the finish line in 20.63 seconds to better his own meet record of 20.65 seconds
Mondo Duplantis raised his pole vault world record to 6.29 metres at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial meet in Budapest on Tuesday. The Olympic and world champion added a centimeter at his second attempt to the previous record mark which he set in June at a Diamond League meet in front of home fans in Stockholm. It was the 13th pole vault world record for the 25-year-old Swede.
Preparations for the World Para Athletics Championships are going as per schedule with laying of Mondo tracks in both competition venue and training area set to be completed by September 1, Paralympic Committee of India President Devendra Jhajharia said on Monday. India is hosting the global para athletics showpiece for the first time from September 27 to October 5 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here, and the tracks at the main arena and adjacent training venue were relaid in view of the championships. "We have completed 95% work of Mondo track laying inside main stadium as well as training area. Laying the base takes a lot of time, topping the base with Mondo does not take much time," Jhajharia told PTI in an interview. "Work on the base is completed, laying of Mondo on top has started. Everything will be completed by September 1," he added. "Preparations for other things like transportation and accommodation of athletes, their escorts and officials, and other logistics have been