Annu Rani finishes eighth in Javelin throw at the World Championships

India's Annu Rani failed to repeat her impressive qualifying round form as she finished eighth in the women's javelin throw. Annu, who on Monday smashed her own national record with a 62.43m throw, could only produce a best of 61.12m in the final round competition on Tuesday.

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Not as impressive

The 27-year-old Annu opened with a 59.25m before coming up with efforts of 61.12m and 60.20m which put her among the top eight after three attempts and gave her three more throws. However, she could not improve upon her second-round bid of 61.12m, coming up with 60.40m, 58.49m and 57.93m, to finish at eighth out of the 12 finalists.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Kelsey Lee Barber, won the gold with a final round throw of 66.56m while the Chinese duo of Asian Games champion Liu Shiying and Asian champion Lyu Huihui took the silver and bronze with efforts of 65.88m and 65.49m respectively.

Annu will, however, held her head high as she had become the first Indian woman to reach the javelin throw final in the World Championships.

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Avinash Sule in the finals

In other results concerning Indians at the Championships, Avinash Sable made it to the men's 3000m steeplechase finals under dramatic circumstances. He became the first Indian man to qualify for a track event finals. 

He initially failed to make the cut despite bettering his own national record in an eventful first round heat but was later included among the men's 3000m steeplechase finalists after the Athletics Federation of India protested that he was obstructed by other athletes during the race.

Avinash clocked 8 minutes 25.23 seconds, bettering his earlier national record of 8:28.94, to finish seventh in heat number 3 and 20th overall out of 44 athletes who completed the race. But he was involved in two incidents during the race that blocked his path and thereby slowing him down for no fault of his.

The AFI later filed an appeal, claiming that Avinash was obstructed by other athletes during the race, with the request that he be advanced to the final round. The race referee, after examining video footages, agreed that Avinash was significantly obstructed on two occasions. India's protest was accepted and under Rule 163.2 (Obstruction), Avinash was included for the final.

Later in the night, Annu Rani could not come up with a similar performance of Monday night but still finished a credible 8th in a field of 12 with a 61.12 meters distance in the women's javelin final.

A night before Annu had created history by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the Javelin final surpassing her own national record with an effort of 62.43m.

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