The big event starts today, lets take you through the notable Indian performance at the games.
The world’s most coveted Athletics meet after the Olympics is set to take place in Oregon with top athletes across the globe set to take part. Let us look at how Indian athletes have performed since the tournament was inaugurated in the year 1983.
Long Jump.
Anju Bobby George is the 1st and only Indian to win a medal at the World Championships. In 2003 she jumped a distance of 6.70m bringing home bronze. She had taken part in a total of 3 World Championships reaching the finals on all three occasions.
She also holds the NR off 6.83m created at the Athens Olympics a record to date. Mayookha Johnny finished 9th at the 2011 WC.
M. Sreeshankar will be India’s medal contender in LJ who had created an NR of 8.36m at the Fed Cup and jumped 8.31m in Greece. In the recently held Interstates championships, he leaped a distance of 8.23m. This year he has consistently gone past the 8m mark.
He will be accompanied by Yahiya and Jeswin. Yahiya in particular has had excellent jumps with good consistency of jumping over the 8m mark across all the events he has participated in.
Javelin Throw
Davinder Kang qualified for the finals of the WC with a throw of 84.22m in the Qualification round. But he could only finish 12th in the overall standings. Annu Rani created an NR with a throw of 62.43m in the Qualifying rounds in 2019. Like Kang, she couldn’t carry forward the form to the finals finishing 8th with a throw of 61.12m.
This time she would go in strong with an NR of 63.82m. She has been consistently throwing at a distance over 60 and looks likely to proceed to the finals.
Neeraj Chopra the Tokyo Gold Medalist will be India’s strong contender. He has had an excellent 1 month in the lead-up to the World Championships. He broke his NR twice and would be eager to breach the much-coveted 90m mark.
3000m Steeplechase
Avinash Sable has a knack for breaking NR every time enters the track. He recently broke his own NR at the Rabat Diamond League with a timing of 8.12 sec bettering it by 6 sec. In 2019 he broke the NR twice in the heats and in the finals. In the heats, he finished with a timing of 8.25.23, and in the finals cutting down the time to 8:21.37 to finish 13th overall. This time around he would like to breach the 8.10 min barrier and bring home a medal.
Discuss Throw
When it comes to Discuss Throw in India then we look at Vikas Gowda. He had taken part in 3 World Championships in 2011, 2013, and 2015 finishing 7th , 7th , and 9th respectively. He along with Anju Bobby George is the only 2 Indians to make it to the finals of the 3 World Championships which indeed is a great achievement.
4*400m Mixed Relay
The team comprising Muhammed Anas, Nirmal Tom, Vismaya, and Jisna made history by qualifying to the finals with a timing of 3:16;14 min in the heats finishing 7th and qualifying for the finals. In the finals again they finished 7th with better timing of 3:15.71 min and eventually qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Few other Notable Performances.
MP Jabir qualified for the SF at the 2019 World Championships and finished 17th in the SF with a timing of 49.71sec. This time around he would like to breach the 48-sec mark and qualify for the finals.
PT Usha at the 1987 WC qualified for the SF but could only finish 6th with a timing of 55.89 sec. Lalita Babar broke the NR in the 3000m steeplechase at the 2015 WC with timing of 9:27.64 min and qualified for the finals. This time Parul Chaudhary will look to better her timing and would look to gain experience.
