World Athletics Championships: Eldhose finishes ninth in triple jump

Eugene: Eldhose Paul, the first Indian triple jumper to compete in a World Athletics Championships final, put on a commendable display to finish ninth at the 2022 meet, on Sunday (IST). The 25-year-old Paul, who produced a best attempt of 16.68m in the qualifiers to squeeze through into the 12-man final, began with a 16.37m jump in his first attempt. With his second attempt, he improved his mark to 16.79m — just 0.20m short of his personal best of 16.99m logged at the Federation Cup earlier this year.

However, the Indian jumper posted a disappointing 13.86m with his third jump and narrowly missed out on a top eight placement after the third round, which meant he couldn't get the three additional attempts.

Meanwhile, India's 4x400m team of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi, Naganathan Pandi and Rajesh Ramesh failed to qualify for the finals after finishing last in its heats. India finished 12th overall in the final standings.

Running on the outside track in heat 1, the Indian team clocked 3:07.29s (split: 46.15, 46.41, 46.43, 48.30) to finish sixth in a six-team field. South Africa were also drawn in heat 1 but didn't start. The timing was far off India's national record timing of 3:00.25s, which was posted by the team of Muhammed Anas, Noah Nirmal Tom, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob at Tokyo 2020.

Notably, India's best timing in men's 4x400m this year is 3:04.41s, achieved at the 7th International Sprint and Relay Cup at the Ataturk University Stadium in Erzurum, Turkey in June.

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