Neeraj Chopra to figure in javelin prelims today
Parul Chaudhary entered the World Athletics Championships without the baggage of expectations but when her moment of reckoning came, the Meerut athlete shone brightly to advance to the final of women's 3000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The 28-year-old, who recently won the Asian title in Bangkok, came up with her personal best time on Wednesday night to advance to Sunday's run.
Parul was in Heat 2 along with Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda, 2017 World champion Emma Coburn of USA and World U-20 champion Kenya's Faith Cherotich who won the heat in 9:19.55s. With no tickets to the final for fastest losers, the Indian's job was cut out as she had to finish in the top-5. Parul did that in style, lowering her PB to 9:24.29s for the fifth position.
Peruth, who won in Tokyo with 9:01.45s, joined Faith and Parul in the final after finishing third in 9:20.02. Emma, who was 10th with a time of 9:41.52s, crashed out. Parul emulated Lalita Babar, who entered the Beijing Worlds final before finishing eighth in 2015. She also holds the national record of 9:19.76 set at the Rio Olympics.
At the 1k mark, Parul was seventh and Emma sixth. Emma moved up to fourth at the halfway mark. Parul paced her race superbly to move to the sixth spot at the 2k mark just behind Emma. At the bell, the Indian moved to fifth spot even as Emma slipped to ninth. There was no looking back as the Indian beat sixth placed Ceili Macabe of Canada by a big margin of nearly five seconds.
A middle distance coach said Parul executed her strategy perfectly. "It looks like Parul went all out. She will have a tough time in the final but you can't write her off as the Championship race will see different tactics. Credit should also go to her American coach Scott Simmons for guiding her," he said.
In men's 35km Race walk on Thursday, India's Ram Baboo finished 27th clocking 2:39.07s.
Over to Neeraj and Co.
The focus shifts to the men's javelin throw where Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu and Kishore Jena will be seen in action. "Both Neeraj and Manu will compete in Group A and are expected to meet the automatic qualification mark of 83m. Jena will compete in Group B. Manu has done 85-86m during training," Kashinath Naik, Manu's personal coach, told TOI.
On Friday: Men's Javelin throw: Group A: Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu (1.40 pm IST); Group B: Kishore Jena (3.15 pm)
