Hima Das, the fastest girl in the fray, lived up to her billing and cruised to the women’s 400m semifinal at the IAAF World under-20 athletics championships here on Tuesday.
Assam’s Hima was the fastest qualifier overall, clocking 52.25s while winning the fourth heat with Kerala’s Asian junior champion Jisna Mathew joining her from the next heat which she won in 54.32s.
Jisna’s heat was packed with drama and American Symone Mason (personal best 51.53s), who was expected to challenge Hima for the gold, was off to a strong start but could not maintain the fast pace and faded to fifth in 55.66, missing the semifinal bus.
Kerala’s M. Sreeshankar comfortably qualified for Wednesday’s men’s long jump final with a 7.68m effort. That was the fourth best jump overall in the qualification round, which was topped by Japan’s Yuki Hashioka with 7.92m.
The other Indian in the fray, Karnataka’s S. Lokesh, failed to make the cut, finishing 17th overall with a best of 7.31m.
Ashish Bhalothia bettered his personal best with an 18.62m effort in the men’s shot put, but that was not enough to carry him into the 12-man final as he finished 14th overall.
There was disappointment in the men’s 1500m heat with Ankit, who has a personal best of 3:47.89s, finishing 12th in his heat in a poor 4:05.15s.
Also failing to make the final was M. Karuniya who finished 14th in her qualification group with 43.96m in the women’s discus.
