Aldrin qualifies for final, Sreeshankar crashes out

BUDAPEST: National record holder long jumper Jeswin Aldrin qualified for his maiden World Athletics Championships finals but fellow competitor Murali Sreeshankar made a shock exit at the qualification round after his worst performance of the season on Wednesday.

Javelin thrower Annu Rani, also a national record holder but struggling for form for some time, produced her second worst performance of the season with a 57.05m effort to crash out in the qualification round after finishing 11th in Group A and 19th overall. The 21-year-old Aldrin, who entered the showpiece as season leader with his 8.42m national record effort in March, cleared 8.0m in his first attempt and fouled his next two jumps. But that was sufficient for him to make it to the 12-man final to be held on Thursday.

Those who cleared automatic qualification distance of 8.15m or top 12 from the two qualification groups made it to the finals. Aldrin, who finished sixth in Group B qualification round, was the 12th best performer overall and made it to the finals as the last qualifier.

On Wednesday, he became the second Indian male long jumper to qualify for the finals in the showpiece after Sreeshankar, who had finished seventh in the 2022 World Championships in USA.

Sreeshankar has been more consistent than Aldrin this season, having crossed the 8m mark on many occasions. He achieved his personal best of 8.41m in Bhubaneswar in June and was entering the World Championships on the back of his silver-winning jump of 8.37m in the Asian Championships in July. But on Wednesday, form deserted Sreeshankar. For Aldrin, this was his second appearance in the World Championships. He had crashed out at the qualification round in the 2022 edition in USA.

In a rare feat, two Indians -- Aldrin and Sreeshankar -- had entered the World Championships as first and second ranked long jumpers in the season leaders’ list.

Aldrin has been struggling to touch the 8m mark after his big jump early in the season. He had also faced fitness issues, which led to him missing the Asian Championships in July.

His most recent outing was at the CITIUS Meeting in Bern, Switzerland which he won with 8.22m.

Indian athletes have disappointed so far in the World Championships.

On the opening day on Saturday, national record holder 3000m steeplechaser Sable failed to qualify for the final round after finishing a disappointing seventh in his heat race.

Three Indians brought up the rear in the men’s 20km race walk final while young Shaili Singh also failed to make it to the women’s long jump final.

Ajay Kumar Saroj ran his personal best of three minutes 38.24 seconds in men’s 1500m heats but that was not enough to qualify for the semifinals, while none of the three Indians in the men’s triple jump -- Praveen Chithravel, Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Aboobacker -- made it to the final round.

On Sunday, Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan and Sarvesh Anil Kushare had crashed out in the 400m hurdles heat race and high jump qualification round respectively.

National record holder 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji failed to qualify for the semifinals on Tuesday as she finished seventh in her heat. She clocked 13.05 seconds -- well below her national record of 12.78s.