Eugene (USA), Aug 7: Mohommed Ashfaq broke the U20 national record to qualify for the men’s 400m semifinals while Amanat Kamboj finished sixth in women’s discus throw finals with a personal best effort on the second day of the World Athletics U20 Championships here.
The 19-year-old Ashfaq clocked 45.81 seconds to finish second behind USA’s Jayden DeLeon (45.63s) in the first round heat 5 and fourth overall to make it to the semifinals.
Ashfaq bettered his own previous national record of 46.05 seconds, set earlier this season in April.
Compatriot Piyush Raj, however, failed to proceed after finishing fifth in Heat 6 and 35th overall with a time of 47.78 seconds.
In the women’s discus final, the 18-year-old Kamboj’s first round throw of 53.24m, her lifetime best, was good enough for a sixth-place finish.
Su Yixin of China won the gold with 61.06m, while Jaslene Massey (58.41m) of USA and Marina Hadjicosta (54.88m) of Cyprus took the silver and bronze respectively.
In men’s high jump, Basant qualified for the finals after finishing fifth in the qualification round Group A and 11th overall with a best clearance of 2.14m.
Compatriot K Ambriesh, however, bowed out as he managed to clear just 2.05m for a 12th place finish in the qualification round Group B and 24th overall. He failed to clear 2.10m in all three of his attempts.
Meanwhile, Anshu missed out on a place in the women’s shot put final after finishing ninth in her qualification group and 14th overall with a throw of 15.24m.
Tanu Chaudhary failed to make it to the women’s 400m hurdles semifinals after finishing fifth in her heat and 33rd overall, clocking 1:00.03s.
Amit Kumar finished eighth and last in his heat in the men’s 400m hurdles, clocking 54.01 seconds.
Both P Royshan and Dhanush Raj also failed to qualify for the men’s triple jump final after finishing 25th and 34th overall respectively with efforts of 15.20m and 14.71m. (PTI)
