Jeswin Aldrin finishes 11th in men’s long jump final in World C’ships

Budapest, Aug 24 (PTI) National record holder Jeswin Aldrin finished a disappointing 11th with one legal mark of 7.77m in the men’s long jump final of the World Athletics Championships here on Thursday.After fouling his first two attempts, Aldrin produced a 7.77m jump in his third effort, which was not enough for him to be among the top eight in the 12-man final.

Only the top eight jumpers remain in the competition after the first three rounds while the remaining were eliminated.Aldrin, who had entered into the showpiece as world season leader with his 8.42m national record effort in March, had on Wednesday produced a best jump of 8.0m in the qualification round to be the 12th and the last qualifier for the final. His last two jumps in the qualification round were also fouls.

Earlier in the day, Ram Baboo finished 27th in men’s 35km race walk event in a time of 2 hours 39 minutes 07 seconds. The 24-year-old holds the national record of 2:29:56.The 21-year-old Aldrin had become the second Indian male long jumper to qualify for the finals in the showpiece after M Sreeshankar, who had finished seventh in the 2022 World Championships in USA.Sreeshankar failed to qualify for the finals this time after producing a best jump of 7.74m in the qualification round. For Aldrin, this was his second appearance in the World Championships.

He had crashed out at the qualification round in the 2022 edition in USA.Aldrin had been struggling to touch the 8m mark after his big jump of 8.42m early in the season. He had also faced fitness issues, which led to him missing the Asian Championships in July.His most recent outing before the World Championships was at the CITIUS Meeting in Bern, Switzerland which he won with 8.22m.