Parul Chaudhary qualifies for the 3000m Steeplechase final at the World Athletics Championships, but Annu Rani fails to finish

As she finished sixth in her 3000m steeplechase heat race on Wednesday, Parul Chaudhary became only the second Indian female athlete to go to the final round of a track event at the World Athletics Championships.

The 28-year-old Chaudhary placed sixth in heat number two and advanced to Sunday’s final round with a time of 9 minutes 24.29 seconds, a lifetime best.

The top five finishers from each of the three heats advanced to the championship round.

The time Chaudhary had previously set for herself was 9:29.51, which she had achieved at a competition in the USA in May of this year.

Prior to Chaudhary, the only other Indian woman to have qualified for the final round of a track event at the World Championships was Lalita Babar, a 3000m steeplechaser.

In the 2015 World Championships final, Babar, who still maintains the women’s 3000m steeplechase national record of 9:19.76, came in eighth.

Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin, who holds the national record, earlier in the day qualified for his first World Championships finals, while another contender Murali Sreeshankar shocked everyone by bowing out in the qualifying round with his poorest performance of the year.

Annu Rani, a javelin thrower who has both a national record and has been out of form for some time, threw her second-worst performance of the season with a 57.05m attempt to place 11th in Group A and 19th overall, and she was eliminated in the qualifying round.

With his 8.42m national record attempt in March, the 21-year-old Aldrin entered the championship as the season’s leader. He cleared 8.0m on his first try before fouling his next two leaps. But it was enough to get him into the 12-man final, which will take place on Thursday.

The top 12 competitors from each of the two qualifying groups or those who passed the automatic qualification distance of 8.15m qualified for the finals.

Aldrin qualified for the finals as the penultimate qualifier, placing sixth in Group B, and was the 12th-best performance overall.

He followed Sreeshankar, who had placed seventh in the 2022 World Championships in the USA, as the second male long jumper from India to go to the showpiece finals on Wednesday.

Sreeshankar, 24, finished 22nd overall and 12th in the Group A qualifying round after a dismal sequence of 7.74m, 7.66m, and 6.70m. Sreeshankar got his season’s poorest effort so far.

Another bombshell for the Indian team already hurting from 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable’s inability to get to the finals was his elimination in the qualifying round. At the very least, the finals were anticipated for him.

This season, Sreeshankar has been more consistent than Aldrin, often reaching the 8-meter threshold. His personal best leap of 8.41 meters was made in Bhubaneswar in June, and he entered the World Championships after earning silver with a jump of 8.37 meters at the Asian Championships in July.

Sreeshankar, who finished third in the Paris Diamond League, faltered on Wednesday when it meant the most. He has already been in the centerpiece twice.

This was Aldrin’s second time competing in the World Championships. In the USA for the 2022 edition, he had fallen out during the qualifying round.

Two Indians, Aldrin and Sreeshankar, accomplished a remarkable achievement by entering the World Championships as the top two long jumpers in the season leaders’ list.

After his significant leap early in the season, Aldrin has had difficulty reaching the 8-meter level. Additionally, he experienced fitness problems, which prevented him from competing in the Asian Championships in July.

In his most recent performance, he took first place with 8.22m at the CITIUS Meeting in Bern, Switzerland.

Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece and reigning champion Wang Jianan of China both just avoided missing the finals with their third and final leaps of 8.25 meters and 8.34 meters, respectively, during the tournament.

Wayne Pinnock, a 22-year-old national champion from Jamaica, astounded the Budapest audience with a new world record leap of 8.54 meters on his first try in the Group A qualifying round. He stopped jumping after that.

With a best leap of 7.45 meters, the Asian champion Lin Yu-Tang of Chinese Taipei also failed to advance to the final round. The defending Commonwealth Games champion LaQuan Nairn of the Bahamas received a “No-Mark” after three foul jumps.

The 30-year-old Annu Rani’s underwhelming performance would make some wonder why she was ever sent for the event. She qualified for the competition based on her global ranking since in the four competitions she took part in this season before to the global Championships, she failed to register a single 60-meter throw.

She qualified for the World Championships by running a 54.76-meter time on August 6 at a competition in Germany. She had previously placed fourth with 59.10m at the Asian Championships in July.

She has struggled throughout the whole season thus far, as shown by her performances of 59.24m and 58.22m at the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Championships in May and June.

Indian athletes have performed poorly so far in these World Championships.

Sable, a 3000m steeplechase national record holder, came in ninth in his heat race on Saturday’s opening day but was disqualified from the competition.

In the men’s 20-kilometer race walk final, three Indians finished last, and young Shaili Singh was unable to advance to the women’s long jump final.

While none of the three Indians competing in the men’s triple jump—Praveen Chithravel, Eldhose Paul, and Abdulla Aboobacker—made it to the final round, Ajay Kumar Saroj recorded his personal best time in the men’s 1500m heats of three minutes, 38.24 seconds, but it was not enough to qualify for the semifinals.

Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan and Sarvesh Anil Kushare both failed to advance from their individual heat races in the 400-meter hurdles and high jump, respectively, on Sunday.

Jyothi Yarraji, a 100-meter hurdler who holds the national record, came in eighth in her heat on Tuesday and was unable to advance to the semifinals. She ran in 13.05 seconds, which is much slower than her 12.78-second national record.