Indian quarter-miler Kiran Pahal finished seventh in women’s 400m Heat 5 and failed to claim a direct qualification berth into the semifinals here on Monday. The Indian clocked 52.51 seconds and finished seventh out of eight runners and overall 40th. She will now take part in the repechage section and have another shot at making the semifinals.
The top three runners in each heat advanced to the semifinal, while all others advanced to the repechage round for another chance to qualify.
Kiran punched her ticket for Paris in the women’s 400m during the Inter-State Athletics last month. She ran a blistering pace to clock 50.92 seconds to better the Paris Olympic Games qualification time of 50.95 on the opening day of the event. Kiran has also emerged as the second-fastest Indian female 400m runner of all time. Notably, Hima Das holds the national record of 50.79 seconds clocked in 2018.
Kiran Pahal is the first Indian female quarter-miler to have qualified for the Olympic Games after a gap of eight years since Nirmal Sheoran (Haryana) qualified for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, defending champion Neeraj Chopra qualified for the men’s javelin throw final of the Olympic Games with a season’s best effort of 89.34m. Much like his performance in the Tokyo Olympics, the 26-year-old crossed the automatic qualifying mark of 84m in his opening throw itself.
The other Indian in the fray, Kishore Jena, is unlikely to make the 12-man final after managing a best throw of 80.73m. Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, who is the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, also qualified for the finals with a throw of 86.59m.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – IANS)
Read More: Paris Olympics: Kiran Pahal Eliminated from Women’s 400m Repechage After Finishing 7th Heat
