Annu qualifies for javelin final

Top Indian woman javelin thrower Annu Rani qualified for the final round of the World Athletics Championships by smashing her own national record here on Monday.

The 27-year-old Annu sent the iron spear to a distance of 62.43m in her second round throw, bettering her earlier national record of 62.34m to book a place for Tuesday’s final. In the process, she became the first Indian to reach the final of the women’s javelin throw at the Worlds.

Annu finished third in Group A and qualified for the final as the fifth best performer of the qualification round. Only two javelin throwers, Asian champion Lyu Huihui (67.27m) of China and Christin Hussong (65.29m) of Germany, could cross the automatic qualification mark of 63.50m. The next ten best, including Annu, joined the pair in the final.

Annu opened with a 57.05m before coming up with her career-best throw in the second round. She had a 60.50m in her third and final throw. Liu Shiying (63.48m) of China and Ratej Martina (62.87m) of Slovenia finished ahead of Annu in Group A, while reigning Olympic champion Sara Kolak of Croatia was sixth with a best throw of 60.99m.

The other two Indians who competed on Monday, Archana Susheendran and Anjali Devi, failed to go past the first round in the women’s 200m and 400m, respectively. The 25-year-old Archana, who got a last minute invite from the world governing body IAAF to take part in the showpiece, finished last in heat number 2 and 40th overall out of the 43 participants, She had a timing of 23.65 seconds.

Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain, who had won silver in the 100m dash on Sunday, topped the overall timings chart of 200m first round heats with 22.32 seconds.

The 21-year-old Anjali, meanwhile, finished sixth in heat number 6 and 36th overall out of 46 athletes, with a timing of 52.33 seconds.

Anjali, who underwent a confirmatory trial before being cleared for the championships, has a personal best of 51.53. The top three finishers in each of the six heats and the next six fastest qualified for the semi-finals. The slowest time that made the cut for the semi-final was 52.23.

The Indian 4x400m mixed relay team finished seventh in the final race with a season-besteffort.

The quartet of Muhammed Anas, VK Vismaya, Jisna Mathew and Tom Nirmal Noah clocked 3 minutes and 15.77 seconds to come last but one in the field of eight countries. Its timing was just a tad slower than the 3:15.71 clocked by the Indian team while winning gold in the Asian Games last year.

Anas began the race in lane number 8 and early in the second leg, Vismaya was running last. Third leg runner Jisna collided with a second leg runner of another country after collecting the baton from Vismaya. India was already at the last spot by that time and this incident cost it a few more seconds.

Noah recovered a bit, but India ended at seventh in the end, ahead of Brazil. United States clinched gold in world record timing of 3:09.34 in the event which was making its debut in the championships.

Jamaica (3:11.78) and Bahrain (3:11.82) secured silver and bronze respectively.

The Indian team had finished third in its heat and seventh overall on Saturday with a timing of 3:16.14 to qualify for the final. That performance ensured a Tokyo Olympics berth forthe country.