Gulveer Singh, Annu Rani fail to qualify for finals in men's 5000m and women's javelin

Tokyo, Sep 19 (PTI) National record holders Gulveer Singh and Annu Rani failed to qualify for the finals of the men's 5000m race and women's javelin throw respectively, following disappointing performances in the World Athletics Championships here on Friday.

Gulveer finished ninth in men's 5000m heat two with a time of 13 minutes 42.34 seconds, his worst of the season and well below his national record time of 12:59.77.

He though missed the finals by a whisker as the top-8 each from the two heats made it to the medal round. He finished 27th overall out of 39 competing athletes.

Gulveer had finished 16th in the 10,000m race on September 14.

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Rani, competing in her fifth World Championships, finished 15th in Group A in the qualification round with a modest throw of 55.18m. She ended 29th overall out of 36 athletes.

After a mediocre 2024, Rani seemed to have regained her touch to some extent this year with 62.59m as her season best. But, on Friday, she also ended up producing her worst performance of the season.

She has earlier competed in the World Championships in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023. She had reached the final round in 2019 and 2022 when she claimed her best finish of seventh. She exited in the qualification round in 2017 and 2023.

Her national record has stood at 63.82m since 2022. PTI PDS PDS AH AH