ATHLETICS
Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin finishes fourth in Lucerne
Young long jumper Jeswin Aldrin got some crucial lessons on how to handle unfavourable conditions while finishing fourth in the Spitzen Leichtathletik meet, a World Athletics Continental Tour (silver) event, in Lucerne (Switzerland) on Tuesday night.
Wet, cold conditions and headwinds spoiled the show as Aldrin - 10th in the world list this year with the 8.26m which came in the Federation Cup in April – managed a last-round 7.82m.
Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, the bronze medallist at the recent World Championships who has a personal best of 8.45m which came in May, was the only jumper to touch 8m and won the gold while Jamaica’s former World champion Tajay Gayle (7.98) and Greece’s Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (7.94) took silver and bronze. The top five jumpers achieved their best performance in the last round.
And finishing behind the 20-year-old Aldrin were Indoor Worlds silver medallist Henry Frayne (fifth, 7.77m) and the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games champion LaQuan Nairn (seventh, 7.62).
Many big names struggled in the adverse conditions. Jamaica’s Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, the second fastest woman in history with 10.54s, clocked 11.30s for 100m silver behind American Sha'Carri Richardson (11.29).
- Stan Rayan
SWIMMING
Junior World Championships: Apeksha qualifies for women’s 200m butterfly finals
Apeksha Fernandes qualified for the women’s 200m butterfly event at the Junior World Championships in Lima, Peru on Wednesday.
With a personal best timing of 2:18.18s, Apeksha finished fourth in her heat and eighth overall, thus grabbing the final spot for the finals.
The final will be held at 4:39AM IST on Thursday.
However, Vedaant Madhavan was disqualified during the men’s 200m freestyle heat due to a false start.
- Team Sportstar
GOLF
Hero WPGT, 11th leg: Local star Sneha takes one-shot lead after first round
Local star Sneha Singh slotted two late birdies on the 16th and 17th to ensure a one-shot lead after the first round of the 11th Leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Trailing Sneha were three players, Nayanika Sanga, Hitaashee Bakshi and Shweta Mansingh, who landed one of the two eagles seen on the day at the Boulder Hills Golf & Country Club.
Sneha had a superb front nine with three birdies and no bogeys. She added a fourth birdie on 10th but was pushed back with consecutive bogeys on 12th and 13th. She fought back with birdies on 16th and 17th to ensure a card of four-under 68.
Sneha has won once as an amateur this season and has also won in previous seasons. Now she is looking for her maiden success after turning professional.
Nayanika and Hitaashee may well have tied with Sneha, but both had bogeys on 17th. In contrast, Shweta made a dash towards the end. She was even par after 12 with two birdies and two bogeys. An eagle on Par-5 14th and a birdie on the Par-3 16th made the day great for her with 69.
Pranavi Urs, winner of four events this season and a hot favourite this week, had a modest 2-under with four birdies against two bogeys. She was tied for fifth with amateur Keerthana R Nair and Seher Atwal, one of the winners this season. They all had 2-under 70 each.
Amateur Heena Kang also had an eagle on Par-5 14th but she had contrasting nines. She had a double bogey, three bogeys and just one birdie for 4-over 40 on the front nine. She rallied on the back nine with three birdies and an eagle in her last six holes.
Amateur Vidhatri Urs with 1-under 71 and Ishvari Prasanna (72) rounded off the Top-10.
- PTI
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