India’s Nirmala Sheoran qualified for the women’s 400m semi-final at the World Athletics Championship in London on Sunday. The 22-year-old clocked 52.01 seconds to finish fourth in her heat in the women’s 400m first round. She took the last spot among the six best finishers.
Running at the inner lane number 2, the Asian champion was slow off the blocks and she was running at the fourth at the final bend. She tried her best to beat Zoey Clark for a third place which would ensure automatic semi-final qualification, but couldn’t overcome her, reported PTI.
However, in order to qualify for the final, the Haryana-based runner will need to perform better than her personal best of 51.20 seconds in the semi-final on Monday.
Bahrain’s 19-year-old Salwa Eid Naser, the 2015 World Youth Championships gold winner, led the 24 qualifiers into the semi-finals with a time of 50.57 secs. Rio Olympics champion Shaunae Miller of Bahamas was third best with 50.97 seconds in the first round heats.
Apart from Nirmala’s qualification, it was another fruitless day for India at the championships. In the men’s marathon, Gopi Thonakal finished 28th while Siddhanth Thingalaya was out of contention after the 110m hurdles heats.
National record holder men’s 110m hurdler Thingalaya crashed out in the first round as he finished seventh in his heat and 31st overall in a 39-man field, clocking 13.64secs, well outside his season and personal best of 13.48 secs.
“I thought it was a good race but it was not enough for a semi-final spot. I am not disappointed with the timing, it was OK,” Thingalaya said after his race.
Gopi was 53rd at the 5km mark in 16 minutes 3 seconds but moved up to 40th at the 10km mark in 31.42. He continued to move up with increased pace and occupied 35th at the hallway mark. He was 31st at the 30km mark and went on improving his position before eventually finishing the race at 28th place. He had done better in the Rio Olympics as he had finished 25th with a personal best timing of 2 hr 15 minutes and 25 seconds.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!