India’s top woman javelin thrower Annu Rani advanced to the final of women’s javelin throw in the World Athletics Championships on Monday, hurling the spear to 62.43m, bettering her own national record of 62.34m set in March and taking a place in the medal round as the fifth-best in the competition.
Annu Rani Improves National Record Mark
The thrower from Meerut has become the first Indian javelin thrower to enter the world championships final. At the 2017 Worlds in London, she had finished 20th overall. Annu finished third in Group A and qualified for the finals as the fifth-best performer of the qualification round.
Rani can look forward to the final, scheduled on Tuesday. Among the 12 who have qualified, only China’s Lyu Huihui (67.27m) and Germany’s Christin Hussong (65.28m) could achieve the automatic qualification mark of 63.50m. As per rule, the top 12 qualify for the final even if they don’t achieve the stipulated mark.
Earlier, on qualifying for the Worlds, she had said that it would help her focus on improving her technical shortcomings. She was hopeful of crossing the 63m barrier in Doha, and the chance will come on Tuesday. Trained by Naik, she is now guided by German great Uwe Hohn who is India’s national coach as well.
Annu Rani Qualifies for Javelin Throw Final at World Championships
After setting the record in the Federation Cup, she became more confident of raising the bar. She was selected to the national camp and also went to Europe for advanced training. In July, at the Ostrava Golden Spike Athletics meet in the Czech Republic, she won bronze with a throw of 60.20m.
India struggled in other events. In the women’s 200m, Archana Susendran clocked a poor 23.65 secs to finish last in her heat and bow out of the competition. Her season-best was 23.18 secs. There was a disappointment in the 400m as well. Anjali Devi, the country’s leading quarter-miler in the absence of Hima Das, was eliminated after clocking 52.33 secs to finish sixth in her heat. Her season’s best is 51.53 secs while she had clocked 52.30 secs in the confirmatory trials held in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on September 21.
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