Budapest (Hungary): India’s Jeswin Aldrin has qualified for the final of the Men’s long jump while fellow Indian Murali Sreeshankar failed to make it, finishing 22nd overall in the qualifying rounds here on Wednesday.
Jeswin Aldrin leapt to 8.00 metres in Qualifying B Group to finish among the 12 best participants to qualify for the final, which will be held on Thursday evening.
The distance for direct qualifying to the final was 8.15, but only four jumpers managed that distance. Jeswin Aldrin’s best effort in qualifying with 8.00 metres bagged him the 12th and final position into the final.
Sreeshankar could manage only 7.74 in the Qualifying A group and failed to make it to the final. This was his less than the distance of 7.96 he managed in the Final at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon last year. In the qualifying round in Oregon last year, Sreeshankar had leapt to 8.00m.
On Wednesday, Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock came up with a world-leading effort of 8.54 metres to top the qualifying field with China’s Jianan Wang placed second with a distance of 8.34, his season best.
Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.26m) of Greece and Carey McLeod of Jamaica (8.19m) were the other jumpers who crossed the automatic qualifying mark of 8.15m.
Among the other Indians, India’s Annu Rani failed to make it to the final of the women’s javelin throw event.
Annu managed a best effort of 57.05 on Wednesday and could not make it among the 12 athletes who qualified for the final. The automatic qualifying mark was 61.05 metres or the best 12 athletes.
Annu’s performance got her the 19th place among 36 athletes that had qualified for the event.
–IANS