Jaisha smashes own marathon record, finishes 18th

Beijing, August 30

OP Jaisha broke her own national record while finishing 18th, one place above compatriot Sudha Singh, in the women’s marathon event. Jaisha, who won 1500m bronze at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, clocked 2:34:43 to better her earlier national mark of 2:37:29 set in January in the Mumbai Marathon.

Sudha finished 19th with a time of 2:35:35. In fact, Sudha’s timing was also better than Jaisha’s earlier national record. Jaisha, 32, has already qualified for next year’s Olympics while Sudha today booked a ticket for the 2016 Rio Games on the basis of today’s timing. The qualifying standard is 2:42:00.

The third Indian entry in the marathon, Lalita Babar, preferred to skip the event. Babar finished eight in the 3000m steeplechase earlier this week.

Expectedly, the Indians ended their campaign without any impact in the showpiece event.

Babar was the best performer for India with her eight-place finish in the women’s 3000m steeplechase. She smashed her own national record in the qualifying round to become the first Indian athlete in track events to make it to the final.

The second national record from Jaisha today was the other better performance while the country’s main hopes, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and shot putter Inderjeet Singh, disappointed after entering the finals. Gowda ended at ninth while Inderjeet finished 11th.

Tintu Luka failed to make the final of the 800m race after finishing seventh in her heat, while the women’s 4x400m relay team — Jisna Mathew, Luka, Debasree Majumdar and M Poovamma — also came a cropper, crashing out in the heats. — PTI