Disappointing day for Indian athletes in Rio

Rio de Janeiro, Aug 13 (IANS) Indian athletes Muhammed Anas Yahiya and Ankit Sharma crashed out of thier respective events at the ongoing Rio Olympics here.

Anas finished sixth in his heat and 31st overall in the men's 400m event with a timing of 45.95 seconds and could not qualify for the semi-finals while Ankit finished 12th in Group B with a distance of 7.67 metre of the men's long jump qualifying round here on Friday evening.

Kirani James (44.93 seconds) of Grenada was the best in the men's 400m event, the second place was taken by Machel Cedenio (44.98) of Trinidad and Tobago while Khamis Ali Khamis (45.12) grabbed the third spot.

First spot in the men's long jump was taken by Jianan Wang (8.24m) of China, while Jeff Henderson (8.20) of America and Emiliano Lasa (8.14) of Uruguay had to settle for the second and third spots respectively.

Earlier on Friday , athletes Manpreet Kaur and Jinson Johnson also had disappointing performances in their respective disciplines.

Manpreet Kaur failed to get past the women's Shot Put qualifying round. The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 18.40 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round.

Manpreet scored 16.68 metres in her first attempt and improved to 17.06 metres in her second attempt. She secured only 16.76m in her third attempt to finish a disappointing 23rd at the Olympic Stadium.

Jinson Johnson's campaign at the Rio Olympics ended after he finished fifth in the qualification round of the men's 800 metres Heat 3 at the Olympic Stadium. The Kerala athlete clocked 1:47.27 minute to cover the distance.

More disappointment was in store for the Indian contingent as discus thrower Vikas Gowda failed to qualify in the qualifying round, securing the 28th position among 35 athletes.

The qualifying mark for the 18 shot putters in Group B was to achieve a throw of 65.50 metres or at least the 12 best performers advanced to the final round.

Gowda threw 57.59 metres and only 58.99 in his first attempt at the Olympic Stadium. The 33-year-old only managed a paltry 58.70m throw in his third attempt, which was way below the desired mark.

In the men's 20km race walk event, Manish Singh finished 13th with a time of 1:21:21. while the other two athletes Gurmeet Singh and Ganapathi Krishnan were disqualified.

--IANS

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