Asian Games: Indian athletes enter finals of long jump, 1500m, women’s 100m hurdles events

PTI

Hangzhou, September 30

Indian hurdlers Jyothi Yarraji and Nithya Ramraj advanced to the women’s 100m hurdles final, while ace long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Jeswin Aldrin also sailed through, keeping their medal hopes alive at the Asian Games here on Saturday.

Asian champion Yarraji finished second in her heat with a timing of 13.03 seconds to qualify for the women’s 100m hurdles final.

China’s Yuwei Lin finished first with a personal best time of 12.79.

India will have a second hurdler in the event as Nithya Ramraj finished fifth in her heat but qualified as second fastest loser with a time of 13.30.

Second-fastest Asian hurdler Yarraji had won gold at the Asian Athletics Championships. She has broken the national record in the 100m hurdles a staggering seven times.

In long jump, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sreeshankar jumped more than the automatic qualification mark of 7.90m to make it to the final.

The 24-year-old from Kerala, who boasts a personal and season’s best of 8.41m, produced a first jump of 7.97 to directly make the cut.

Having started off with a foul, Asia’s best Jeswin Aldrin’s third attempt of 7.67 was not enough for an automatic qualification but he still made the cut after finishing second in his heat and among the top 12.

There will be two Indians in the men’s 1500m final as Jinson Johnson and Ajay Kumar qualified from their respective heats.

Johnson finished fifth with a time of 3:56.22 to seal an automatic qualification spot.

Ajay Kumar was second to cruise into the final with a timing of 3:51.93, finishing second in his heat.

Finals of all the three events—women’s 100m hurdles, men’s long jump and men’s 1500m—are slated to be held on Sunday.

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