Sahil Silwal qualified for the Javelin Throw finals at the Under-20 World Championships after he managed a throw of 73.22 metres at the Ratina Stadium in Tampere, Finland.

Silwal, who has been training with Neeraj Chopra in Finland, holds a personal best of 74.88 metres and is left-handed unlike predecessor Chopra, who won the Javelin Throw title last time at Bydgoszcz, Poland.

Silwal needed only attempt in qualification with a mark of 72 enough to make the cut for the final. He finished fifth overall, but three of the four above him threw personal bests, indicating that Silwal’s best may yet to be seen beyond his single throw in qualification.

In the triple jump event, Kangaraj Kamalraj cleared 15.98m in his first jump to cross the automatic qualification mark of 15.80 and qualify for the final round. He finished second in Group A qualification round and third overall.

National Javelin coach Uwe Hohn had expected Silwal to cross 80 metres at the Federation Cup in March, but he had finished fifth with a throw of 73.64 metres.

In the evening session, India would be hoping for another medal with Asian champion Ashish Jhakar scheduled to participate in the Hammer Throw final, after making the cut with a 70.52 metres throw in qualification. Jhakar was ranked eighth in qualifying, as four throwers made the automatic mark of 74 metres. In a strong field, Jhakar will have to improve on his personal best of 76.86 metres to be in contention for a medal.

In the track events, Beant Singh finished 15th overall in the qualifying rounds of the 1500 metres with a time of 1 minute and 49.66 seconds, almost 3 seconds down on his personal best.

In the women’s 100 metres hurdles, Sapna Kumari finished fifth in her heats with a timing of 14.15 seconds, and failed to make it to the finals. She ended 32nd overall out of 40 finishers, with Tia Jones of the United States qualifying first with a time of 13.25 seconds.

Durga Pramod Deore failed to finish the women’s 1500m heats.