Javelin thrower Annu Rani, 100m hurdler Yarraji fail to impress in Paris Olympics

Paris, Aug 7 (PTI) Experienced Indian javelin thrower Annu Rani once again failed to impress on the global stage as she made a qualification round exit from the Olympics with an extremely poor performance here on Wednesday.

The 31-year-old national record holder opened her event with 55.81m and could not improve upon that mark in her next two attempts, which measured 53.22m and 53.55m, to finish at 15th among 16 competitors in Group A and 26th overall.

Annu, who has been training abroad in the build-up to the Olympics, has a season’s best of 60.68m and her national record stands at 63.82m.

In the past two years, she has thrown over 60m only twice, with the Asian Games gold-winning effort of 62.92m being one of them.

She had qualified for the Paris Olympics through world ranking quota.

In another below-par show, national record holder 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji failed to book an automatic semifinal spot after finishing seventh in her round one heat race.

The Olympic debutant, who is the first Indian to compete in 100m hurdles in the Games, clocked a below-par 13.16 seconds in heat number four to finish 35th overall out of 40 total runners.

The 24-year-old Indian’s national record stands at 12.78 seconds.

Defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico clocked 12.42 seconds to top the charts among semifinal qualifiers.

The top three finishers in each of the five heats and the next three fastest advanced to the semifinal.

All the remaining competitors — except for DNS (Did Not Start), DNF (Did not Finish) and DQ (Disqualified) — have another chance to qualify from the repechage round to be held on Thursday.

High jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare also failed to reach the final round after finishing 13th in Group B and 25th overall in the qualification round as he could clear a height of merely 2.15m. He has a season’s best of 2.25m.

Earlier in the day, the marathon race walk mixed relay team of Suraj Panwar and Priyanka Goswami did not finish the race. Goswami pulled out in the fourth and final leg of the race which covered a total distance of 41.4km.