Maymon, Sonu and Ashish disappoint

Men’s sprint hurdler Maymon Poulose, triple jumper Sonu Kumar and hammer thrower Ashish Jakhar were far below their personal and season’s bests as they crashed out in the first round of their respective events at the World Under-20 Athletics Championships.

Maymon Poulose, who produced a personal-best 13.95s at the junior Asians in Vietnam last month on his way to the silver, could only manage 14.10s.

Men’s sprint hurdler Maymon Poulose, triple jumper Sonu Kumar and hammer thrower Ashish Jakhar were far below their personal and season’s bests as they crashed out in the first round of their respective events at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships at Bydgoszcz, Poland, on Wednesday.

Maymon, who produced a personal-best 13.95s at the junior Asians in Vietnam last month on his way to the silver, could only manage 14.10s today and was sixth in his first round heat (top three in each heat and the next three fastest qualify for semifinal) while triple jumper Sonu Kumar was 30th overall in the preliminary round with a best of 14.73 (the top 12 qualify). He had picked the junior Asian bronze with a personal best 15.99 in June.

Meanwhile Ashish Jakhar, who won the Asian junior hammer throw gold with a personal best 69m in Vietnam, could only manage a best of 66.73m in the preliminary round and failed to qualify for the final after finishing 17th overall (top 12 qualify).

Jisna disqualified

The Indian team suffered a big setback late on Tuesday night with junior Asian champion Jisna Mathew being disqualified for a lane infringement in the women’s 400m first round.

Jisna, a member of the senior Indian 4x400m relay team for next month’s Rio Olympics, came close to her best this season with a powerful run and finished third but it went in vain. “First, they announced her name as being qualified and later, it showed that she had been disqualified,” Jisna’s coach P.T. Usha told Sportstar from Poland on Wednesday evening.

“I approached the officials and they showed the race video and towards the end of the first curve, her left toe had touched the (left) lane slightly. They also told me that a protest would be of no use.”

Personal best for Gavit, Abhishek

Meanwhile, Indian distance runners Gavit Murli and Abhishek Pal clocked their personal best times while finishing 19th and 22nd respectively in the men’s 10,000m late last night.

The results (gold medallists & Indians in final):

Men: 10,000m: Rodgers Kwemoi (Ken) 27:25.23s (meet record). 19. Gavit Murli (Ind) 30:20.59s, 22. Abhishek Pal (Ind) 30:22.86.

Shot put: Konrad Bukowiecki (Pol) 23.34m (under-20 world record).

Women: 10,000m race walk: Ma Zhenxia (Chn) 45:18.45s.