India at World Athletics Championships: One final, one semi-final and one personal best

Javelin thrower Davinder Singh Kang’s entry to the finals of the World Athletics Championship was the sole bright spot as the tournament drew to a close in London on Sunday. Apart from two athletes, no one else from India’s 24-member squad progressed beyond the qualification. Neeraj Chopra, who was India’s best hope, failed to make to the final. The men’s 4x400m team bowed out with their heads held high, recording their season’s best performance.

In short, it was yet another forgettable outing for India’s track and field athletes. Here’s a look back at India’s performance in London.

4 x 400 metres relay

The quartet of Jisna Mathew, MR Poovamma, Anilda Thomas and Nirmala Sheoran clocked 3 minutes and 28.62 seconds to finish seventh in the first heat of the women’s 4x400 metres relay during round one but they were disqualified later for lane infringement.

The men’s team finished on a good note, recording their season’s best performance, finishing fifth in the heats. They were represented by the quartet of Kunhu Muhammed, Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Anas and Arokia Rajiv.

110-metre hurdles

Siddhanth Thingalaya crashed out after finishing seventh in his heats in the men’s 110 metres hurdles. He finished the race in 13.64 seconds, taking the 31st spot in the table. The Mumbai athlete’s personal best and second best is 13.48 seconds.

Marathon

On a day when Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin were fighting it out for the 100 metres gold, Thonakal Gopi finished a decent 28th in the men’s marathon. Monika Athare, though, had a forgettable outing, finishing 64th in the women’s category with a time of 2:49:54.

Men’s 400 metre

Muhammad Anas Yahiya finished a creditable fourth in the 400 metres heat. The 22-year-old clocked 45.98 seconds but finished well behind third-placed Abdelelah Haroun of Qatar, who recorded a time of 45.27 seconds. The 22-year-old’s personal best is 45.32 seconds.

Women’s 400 metre

Haryana athlete Nirmala Sheoran put up a spirited display to reach the women’s 400 metres semifinals, where she she finished in the bottom three. The Olympian has a personal best 51.48 seconds, which she registered in 2016. In London, Sheoran clocked 53.07 seconds.

Heptathlon

Swapna Barman, who won the Asian Athletics Championships last month, finished a disappointing 26th in the heptathlon. Among all competitors, she finished second from last with a points tally of 5,431. Barman’s personal best is a total of 5,942 points. Barman was placed 27th in the 100 metres hurdles, 23rd in the high jump and 14th in the shot put events.

5,000 metres

Govindan Lakshmanan clocked his personal best but it was not enough for the Indian to qualify for the men’s 5000 metres final at the World Athletics Championships in London.

The 27-year-old finished with a time of 13:35:69, one second better than his earlier personal best of 13:36.62 competing against the likes of the legendary Mo Farah.

100 metres

On the back of controversy surrounding her participation, Dutee Chand finished 6th in women’s 100-metre Heat-5 clocking 12.07 seconds. Overall, the Odisha sprinter was placed 38th out of 47 athletes. Her effort was far away from her personal best, which is 11.24 seconds which was recorded only a month before the Rio Olympics.

Javelin throw

Kang’s impressive run ended on Saturday as he finished 12 out of 13 competitors in the final of the javelin throw late on Saturday night at the Olympic Stadium in London.

Meanwhile, Chopra’s campaign came to an end, as could not hurl the iron spear to the the automatic final round qualification mark of 83m in his three attempts with his best effort of 82.26m coming in his opening throw. The 19-year-old personal best is 86.48 metres, and had three 85-plus throws under his belt this season.

As for Kang, he recorded his personal best earlier in the year with a massive 84.57m throw in the Federation Cup. It was a 84.22m effort that took him to the final.

Earlier, Asian Championships silver medallist Annu Rani failed to make it to the final in women’s javelin as she finished 20th overall with a best throw of 59.93 metres. The 24-year-old crossed the 60-metre barrier with a 61.86m throw at the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships.

Race walk

KT Irfan and Khushbir Kaur finished at the 23rd and 42nd positions respectively in the men’s and women’s 20 km race walk events on the final day of the competition.

National record holder Khushbir was the first to take the field and she clocked 1 hour 36 minute and 41 seconds, around two minutes outside her season best of 1 hour 34 minute and one second, to finish 42nd out of 52 competitors who completed the race.

The Amritsar-based athlete, also finished well below her personal best, which was a memorable 1:33:37 during the Asian Games in 2014, which helped her clinch the silver medal in Incheon. Devender Singh (1:25:47) and K Ganapathy (1:28:32) finished 50th and 54th respectively.