Anas, Dutee and Swapna disappoint in World Athletics Championships

Asian champion Muhammed Anas, 100m national record-holder Dutee Chand and women’s heptathlon Asian champion Swapna Barman all faltered in the second day of the World Athletics Championships held in London.

Dutee Chand and Muhammed Anas crashed out from the World Athletics Championships in terrible fashion.

Asian champion Muhammed Anas finished fourth in his heat and failed to qualify for the men’s 400m semifinal in the World Athletics Championships in London on Saturday.

The 22-year-old from Kerala, who impressively lowered his national record to 45.32s in the Indian Grand Prix in Delhi in May, could only manage 45.98s. The top three in each heat progressed to the semifinals.

“I don’t know what happened…things did not go my way in the last 100m,” Anas told Sportstar from London.

There was more disappointment from Odisha’s Dutee Chand, the country’s fastest woman who got a last-minute berth in the Worlds after the IAAF realised that not many had met its tough qualification standard.

Rio Olympian Dutee, the 100m national record holder with a personal best 11.24s (2016) and a season-best 11.30s, came up with a shocking 12.07s, her slowest time in two years, and crashed out after finishing sixth in her heat.

Meanwhile West Bengal’s Swapna Barman, the women’s heptathlon Asian champion who has a season-best 1.87m in the high jump, could only manage 1.71m on the opening day of the multi-eventer today and was near the bottom of the pack in her group after two events.