Jumpy high jumpers
Nauraj and Hup Wei fail to take off in the final
HIGH jumpers Nauraj Singh Randhawa and Lee Hup Wei failed to take a leap of faith in the final.
Nauraj only managed a poor 2.18m in the final to finish 10th among 13 athletes at the Carrara Stadium yesterday.
Former Asian champion Hup Wei, who has a personal best of 2.28m, only managed 2.21m to
finish in eighth place.
The expectations were higher for Nauraj, who has been training under Australian coach Alex Stewart in Sydney since last November, to deliver a medal.
The Olympian had high hopes of finishing on the podium but his efforts were way off his personal best of 2.30m.
Nauraj’s training partner,
Brandon Starc of Australia, did a personal best of 2.32m to win the gold.
Jamal Wilson of the Bahamas and Canada’s Django Lovett both cleared the same height of 2.30m but Jamal was awarded the silver on countback.
The 26-year-old Nauraj was naturally unhappy.
“I hoped to do much better. My body was good and my run-up was also good but I just could not
take off well,” said Nauraj, who cleared 2.21m on Monday to qualify for the final.
“This is the first time I qualified for the final of a major event but I failed to come good. I’ll get better from here.”
The 30-year-old Hup Wei was also disappointed.
“I was expecting to do better than the 2.23m I did in Glasgow (2014) but I failed. It’s so frustrating.”