India's javelin thrower Annu Rani to compete in Brussels Diamond League

BRUSSELS: India’s javelin thrower Annu Rani will compete in the Brussels Diamond League 2023 athletics meet at the King Baudouin Stadium in Belgium on Friday. According to Olympics.com, the Brussels Diamond League 2023, popularly known as Memorial Van Damme, will be Annu Rani’s first Diamond League competition of this season. The 31-year-old Indian javelin thrower has competed in just one Diamond League meet before - the Lausanne leg in 2019. She finished an underwhelming seventh there.

Annu Rani, who holds India’s women’s javelin throw national record of 63.24 m, currently ranks 43rd in the world. Rani’s personal best is 63.82m that she achieved in 2022 and her season’s best is 59.24m.

This meet will be a tough one for Annu Rani, who will be competing in a field of world-class opponents like reigning world champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan and Austrian Olympian Victoria Hudson, who currently ranks fifth in the world. 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.

Annu Rani last competed at an international meet in Thum, Germany, earlier this month and finished seventh with a throw of 52.54m in rainy conditions. With the Asian Games 2023 scheduled to begin in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China, later this month, the Brussels meet will be an opportunity for Annu Rani to find some form heading into the continental event.

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