New Delhi: Day 2 at the World Athletics Championships 2022  was rather disappointing for India as Murali Sreeshankar could not give his best to end up at the seventh position in the Men’s Long Jump finals. On the second day, Parul Chaudhary, playing Women’s 3000 m Steeplechase, and MP Jabir, playing in the Men’s 400 m Hurdles, did not qualify for the finals and semi-finals respectively.

Mulari Sreeshankar in Men’s Long Jump finals

India had high hopes from the athlete as he jumped 8.26 m this season, which could have been enough to win a medal at the tournament. However, Sreeshankar could not cross the 8 m mark at the tournament.

In the qualification round, Sreeshankar jumped 8 m in his second attempt to stand at the seventh position which cleared his path to qualify for the finals. In the finals, he started off well as after the first attempt he was leading with a jump of 7.96 m. As he failed to go for a legal jump in the second attempt, five athletes crossed the 8 m mark and the Indian athlete stood at 6th position on the leaderboard. After an illegal jump in the third attempt, he fell off to 7th position.

He jumped 7.89 m and 7.83 m in the 4th and 6th attempts. With his best jump of 7.96 m, he came seventh in the tournament. China’s Wang Jianan jumped 8.36 m in his final attempt to clinch the gold, while Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.32 m) and Simon Ehammer (8.16 m) won the silver and the bronze medals respectively.

Parul Chaudhary in Women’s 3000 m Steeplechase

Parul clocked 9:38.09 at Oregon’22, as she bettered her personal best by 20 seconds margin. The Indian national record still stands at 9:19.76, recorded by Lalita Babar at the Rio Olympics. Even after clocking her personal best, Parul could not qualify for the finals as she finished 12th out of 14 in her own heat. Overall, she finished 31st out of 42. While the top three from each of the three heats along with the next six fastest made it to the final.

MP Jabir in Men’s 400 m Hurdles

Playing in the Heat 2, Jabir clocked 50.76 seconds. He fell short of his personal best by 1.63 seconds as he clocked 49.13 seconds at the 2019 Asian Athletics Championships. He stood last in his heat and 31st out of 36 overall as he failed to qualify for the semi-finals.

He will be disappointed with his performance as he made it to the semis at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, with a time of 49.62 seconds.

Men’s 100 m finals

The USA won all three medals (gold, silver and bronze) in the Men’s 100 m as Fred Kerley (9.86s), Marvin Bracy (9.88s) and Trayvon Bromell (9.88s) secured the top three spots. Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, who was leading at the semis, came fourth by clocking 9.97 seconds.