High jumper Tejaswin Shankar, with 2.15m, finished joint sixth at the World University Games on Thursday.
Shankar, the national record holder with 2.29m who qualified for the final with 2.20m, cleared all the heights till 2.15m in his first attempt but failed at the next height, 2.20m. Ukraine’s Vladyslay Lavskyi took the gold with 2.25m while three athletes shared the bronze with 2.20m. Shankar shared the sixth place with two others.
Meanwhile, Asian champion Jyothi Yarraji topped her 100m hurdles heat in 13.12s and breezed into the semifinal. Prasanti Sahu, the other Indian in the event, was fifth in her heat in 13.75 and crashed out.
Yamandeep Sharma and Stalin Joes Stephen finished eighth and 10th in the decathlon while national record-holder Amlan Borgohain qualified for the 200m semifinal after winning his heat in 21.00s and Poorva Sawant (12.81m, seventh in the qualification group) progressed to the women’s triple jump final.
The big disappointment was Tanya Chaudhary, who qualified for the next month’s Asian Games with a personal best 63.16m at the recent Inter-State Nationals where she took the silver, could only manage 54.27m and bowed out after finishing seventh in the qualification round.
The results (gold medallists & Indian performances in finals): Men: 400m: 1. Ricardo Coelho (Por) 44.79s. 1500m: 1. Robert Benoit (Fra) 3:38.61s.
3000m steeple chase: 1. Christian Mergenthaler (Ger) 8:38.42s. High jump: 1. Vladyslay Lavskyi (Ukr) 2.25m, 6. Tejaswin Shankar (Ind) 2.15. Triple jump: 1. Su Wen (Chn) 17.01m. Decathlon: 1. Vilem Strasky (Cze) 7925 pts; 8. Yamandeep Sharma (Ind) 6897 pts, 10. Stalin Joes Stephen (Ind) 6393.
Women: 400m: 1. Marlie Viljoen (RSA) 52.38s. 800m: 1. Laura Pellicoro (Ita) 2:04.20s. 400m hurdles: 1. Alice Muraro (Ita) 55.48s. Javelin throw: 1. Eda Tugsuz (Tur) 59.05m.
