Parul Chaudhary on Wednesday became only the second Indian female athlete ever to qualify for the final round of a track event at World Athletics Championships as she finished fifth in her 3000m steeplechase heat race in Budapest. Annu Rani, meanwhile suffered an early exit from the women’s javelin throw event.
The 28-year-old Chaudhary clocked a personal best time of 9 minutes 24.29 seconds to finish fifth in heat number two and make it to the final round to be held on Sunday. The top five finishers in all the three heats qualified for the final round.
Chaudhary’s earlier personal best was 9:29.51 which she had clocked in an event in USA in May this year. She has had a successful 2023, winning gold in the 3000m steeplechase at the Asian Athletics Championships, where she also won silver in the 5000m event.
Before Chaudhary, Lalita Babar, also a 3000m steeplechaser, was the lone Indian woman to have qualified for the final round of a track event in the World Championships. Babar, who still holds the women’s 3000m steeplechase national record of 9:19.76, had finished eighth in the final of the 2015 World Championships.
What a year Parul Chaudhary has had:
◾️ Set a PB of 9.29.51 in May, nearly 10s off her earlier PB
◾️ Won �� at the Asian Champs
◾️ Today, she clocked a new PB of 9:24.29, which is 14 SECONDS faster than what she clocked at the 2022 #WorldAthleticsChamps! ��#IndianAthletics pic.twitter.com/vKVLtJ4oIr
– Shyam Vasudevan (@JesuisShyam) August 23, 2023
Earlier in the day, Javelin thrower Annu Rani, also a national record holder but struggling for form for some time, produced her second worst performance of the season with a 57.05m effort to crash out in the qualification round after finishing 11th in Group A and 19th overall.
The 30-year-old had entered the tournament through world ranking quota, as she did not record a single 60m throw in the four events she participated this season before the World Championships.
She had entered the World Championships after a 54.76m performance in an event in Germany on August 6. Before that, she had finished fourth in the Asian Championships in July with 59.10m.
She had recorded 59.24m and 58.22m in the Federation Cup and National Inter-State Championships in May and June, showing her struggle all through the season so far.
Chaudhary became only the second Indian to qualify for the finals in this edition of the World Athletics Championships, after Jeswin Aldrin finished 12th in qualification and narrowly avoided elimination from the men’s long jump event. Rani’s exit is in line with her fellow Indian athletes, with other high-profile names like Sreeshankar Murali, Avinash Sable and Jyothi Yarraji all suffering earlier than expected exits from the competition.
