Hyderabad: Kerala half-miler Jinson Johnson caught the attention of spectators in G.M.C. Balayogi Stadium in Gachibowli with his scintillating performance in 800m under cool weather conditions. The 25-year-old runner, hails from a small village near Kozhikode, shown real guts to make the Olympic grade. Led by Sajeesh Joseph, who acted as a pacer, Jinson ran a very fast first lap in everyone’s amusement. Joseph pulled out after the half-way stage that left Jinson to complete the remaining part of the race at his own pace.
When the results appeared Jinson look visibly disappointed as he misses the Rio standard narrowly. Jinson clocked 1:46.43 while the qualification mark stands at 1:46.00.
“Jinson ran the first 200m very fast that caused him slower down at the final stages of the race” opined his coach Kunhi Muhammed.
“I was expecting competition from my fellow runners, at least till the 600m. However lack of challenge was one of the factors for missing the qualification” revealed Jinson after the race.
Jinson’s previous best 1:47.56 came two months ago at Delhi Federation Cup. Today’s performance put him third in the Indian all-time ranking lists for this distance.
Tamil Nadu girl M Gomathi takes the women’s title in 2:06.28.
Indian All-Time Top-10 in Men’s 800m:
1:45.77 Sri Ram Singh 1976
1:46.26 Pankaj Dimri 2010
1:46.43 Jinson Johnson 2016
1:46.67 Francis Sagayaraj 2010
1:46.81 Charles Borromeo 1982
1:46.81 Sajeesh Joseph 2014
1:47.06 Rajeev Ramesan 2008
1:47.24 Manjit Singh 2010
1:47.52 K M Binu 2002
Another athlete who misses the Rio QM was triple jumper Renjith Maheswary. The former Asian champion tried his might to reach 16.85m. However he could not find his rhythm in the first few rounds this evening. He delivered his best on the final round of the completion by leaping to 16.56m. His Kerala teammate A V Rakesh Babu (16.20) and Bheeshm Singh, representing Manipur (16.16), finished in that order behind Renjith.
Much was expected from the shot putters. However a slippery circle, due to intermittent rain, hampered the chances of delivering their bests. Asian champion Inderjeet Singh, who already qualified for the Olympic Games with a toss of 20.65m, clinches the gold medal today with 19.28m throw. Punjab’s Tejinderpal Singh, who upsets Inderjeet in the Federation Cup at Delhi with a whooping distance of 19.93m and expected to make the cut here, could do only 19.21m to finish second. His state-mate Jasdeep Singh went home with the bronze in 18.48m, whereas national record-holder Om Prakash Singh Karhana finished outside the podium (18.39m).
Odisha’s Purnima Hembram, former Asian junior heptathlon champion, pockets the gold in women’s 400m hurdles clocking 59.27 secs. Ayana Thomas, representing Delhi, was a close second in 59.63s.
In 3,000m steeplechase Haryana lad Naveen completes a ‘hat-trick’ of victories with a time of 8:44.33 while Parul Chaudhary (Uttar Pradesh) takes the top spot in the women’s division in 10:46.92.
Haryana received another gold through Ankit Saini, who garnered 6,807 points to win the grueling decathlon event.
