Brussels Diamond League 2023: Annu Rani finishes seventh in javelin throw event

BRUSSELS: India’s Annu Rani finished seventh in the women's javelin throw event at the Brussels Diamond League 2023 athletics meet held at the King Baudouin Stadium in Belgium on Friday. Annu Rani’s best throw measured 57.74m in her third attempt.

It was considerably short of her personal best of 63.82m, which is also a national record. Annu Rani’s season’s best, meanwhile, is 59.24m.

Reigning world champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan won the women’s javelin throw event with a world-leading throw of 67.38m. The effort was also a personal best and a Japanese national record.

The top five athletes, including world championships silver medallist Flor Ruiz of Colombia, managed to log throws beyond the 60m mark at the Brussels meet. Annu Rani was the only Indian participating in the last leg of the Diamond League.

The Brussels leg, popularly known as Memorial Van Damme, was Annu Rani’s first Diamond League competition this season. The 31-year-old Indian javelin thrower has competed in just one Diamond League meet before at Lausanne in 2019. There, too, she finished seventh. Annu Rani has struggled for form of late.

Since winning the bronze medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in August last year, the former Asian Games medallist has failed to get past the 60m mark in any of the events she has competed in.

The Brussels leg was the final meet of the Diamond League 2023 season before the finals in Eugene, Oregon, scheduled on September 16 and September 17.