India’s disappointing run at the 2023 World Athletics Championships continued on Sunday as high jumper Sarvesh Kushare, and 400m hurdler Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan failed to advance to the next round of their respective events.
While Tamilarasan clocked 50.46s to finish seventh in his men’s 400m hurdles heats, Kushare registered a best leap of 2.22m in the men’s high jump qualification round at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary.
Tamilarasan, 25, failed to attain the criteria of finishing top four in the heat to qualify for the 400m hurdles semi-finals. His best attempt also placed him 36th overall, out of the 41 athletes who completed the event.
Kushare, on the other hand, seemed to be enjoying a better outing as he cleared the 2.22m barrier in the first attempt, but failed thrice at the next height – 2.25m. The 28-year-old, thus, finished 11th in Group B and 20th overall in the competition. The automatic qualification for high jump stood at 2.30m.
Earlier, during the opening day of the World Athletics Championships on Saturday, Ajay Kumar Saroj had emerged as the only bright spot for India as he clocked a personal best 3:38.24 mins in men’s 1500m heats. Saroj, however, had failed to qualify for the event’s semi-finals.
Among the other Indians in action on Saturday, long jumper Shaili Singh, triple jumpers Eldhose Paul, Praveen Chitravel, Abdulla Aboobacker failed to qualify for the final of their respective events, as did steeplechaser Avinash Sable. This was just hours after Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh, and Akashdeep Singh finished 28th, 35th, and 47th respectively in men’s 20km racewalk final.
No Indians will be in action on the Day 3 of the global event on Monday. The next Indian representation in Budpest will be on Tuesday when Jyothi Yarraji (women’s 100m hurdles) and Krishan Kumar (men’s 800m) take the centrestage for their Heats.