Qosanov Memorial 2024: Nayana James and Sarvesh Kushare win titles in the Athletics Meet
Indian athletes Nayana James and Sarvesh Anil Kushare secured title wins in the women’s long jump and men’s high jump events, respectively, at the Qosanov Memorial 2024 athletics meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan on June 22, Saturday.
Notably, Qosanov Memorial 2024 is a World Athletics Continental Tour-bronze event. The two-day Athletic Meet concluded on June 23, Sunday.
Former Asian bronze medallist Nayana James, who won the Taiwan Open earlier this month, finished as a top athlete in a seven-member field with a best jump of 6.39 m, which came in her third attempt.
Kazakhstan duo Anastasia Rypakova, with a jump of 6.06 m, and Ekaterina Avdeyenko with 5.78 m finished in the second and third spots respectively.
It’s important to note that this was Nayana’s sixth top-two finish in 2024 and it was the second title win in international meets after the win in the Taiwan Athletics Open earlier in June. Additionally, she secured her personal best of 6.67m to win the Indian Open Jumps Competition in March 2024.
Sarvesh Anil Kushare equals the season’s best in Qosanov Memorial 2024
Furthermore, moving to the men’s high jump event, Indian athlete Sarvesh Anil Kushare equaled the season’s best of 2.23 m to secure the top position. Uzbekitan’s Amir Nagaev (2.14m) and Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Timoshin (2.08m) finished in the second and third spots respectively.
Sarvesh is currently 36th in the Road to Paris men’s high jump rankings for Paris 2024. However, the cut-off rank is 32. With the qualification window for the athletics events set at June 30, he would be aiming to improve his ranking.
Moving to the details of the other events from the Qosanov Memorial 2024 meet, Eldhose Paul logged the best jump of 15.51 m to secure the fifth spot in the men’s triple jump competition. Uzbekistan’s Ivan Denisov won the title with his best jump of 16.26 m.
On the other hand, Somnath Chauhan (1:49.35 seconds) and Ankesh Chaudhary (1:49.43 seconds) settled for the second and third spots, respectively, in the men’s 800m event. Sobhan Ahmadi from the Islamic Republic of Iran took the top spot, clocking 1:49.01 seconds.