Asian champion Chitra crashes out of 1,500m
DOHA: India’s PU Chitra ran her personal best in the women’s 1,500m first round heats but that was not enough to advance further in the World Athletics Championships here on Wednesday.
Asian champion Chitra ran four minutes and 11.10 seconds, a tad better than her earlier personal best of 4:11.55, to finish eighth in heat number two and 30th overall out of 35 runners to crash out of the championships.
The top six in each of the three heats and the next six fastest qualify for the semi-finals.
The 24-year-old Chitra had won the Asian Championships gold on the same tracks in April with a time of 4:14.56.
Her earlier personal best was during the National Inter-State Championships in Guwahati last year.
Hassan Sifan of the Netherlands, who has already won the 10,000m gold in this championships, led the time charts among the semi-final qualifiers with 4:03.88.
Meanwhile, India’s Avinash Sable qualified for the men’s 3,000m steeplechase finals under dramatic circumstances.
The 25-year-old from Mandwa in Maharashtra thus became the first Indian man to reach the finals of a track event in the World Championships.
Avinash initially failed to qualify for the finals despite bettering his own national record in an eventful first round heat but was later included among the men’s 3,000m steeplechase finalists after the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) successfully protested that he was obstructed by other athletes during the race on Tuesday.
He clocked eight minutes and 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. 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. One hour later, the race referee, after examining video footages, agreed that Avinash was significantly obstructed on two occasions. India’s protest was accepted and Avinash was included for the final on Friday.