Annu qualifies for javelin finals with national record effort

Doha : Top Indian woman javelin thrower Annu Rani qualified for the final round of the World Athletics Championships by smashing her own national record here on Monday.

The 27-year-old Annu sent the iron spear to a distance of 62.43m in her second round throw, bettering her earlier national record of 62.34m, which she achieved in March, to book a place for Tuesday's finals.

In the process, she became the first Indian to reach the finals of the women's javelin throw in the World Championships. Annu finished third in Group A and qualified for the finals as the fifth best performer of the qualification round.

Only two javelin throwers, Asian champion Lyu Huihui (67.27m) of China and Christin Hussong (65.29m) of Germany, could cross the automatic qualification mark of 63.50m while another 10, including Annu, made up the 12, who will compete in the finals.

Annu opened with a 57.05m before coming up with her career-best throw in the second round. She had a 60.50m in her third and final throw.

World leader and Asian Games champion Liu Shiying (63.48m) of China and Ratej Martina (62.87m) of Slovenia finished ahead of Annu in Group A, while reigning Olympic champion Sara Kolak of Croatia was sixth with a best throw of 60.99m.

Meanwhile, the Indian 4x400m mixed relay team finished seventh in the final race of the World Championships with a season best effort here.

The team of Muhammed Anas, V K Vismaya, Jisna Mathew and Tom Nirmal Noah clocked 3 minute 15.77 seconds to finish seventh in the field of eight countries on Sunday.

It was just a tad slower than the 3:15.71 clocked by the Indian team while winning gold in the Asian Games last year.

Anas began the race in lane number 8 and early in the second leg, Vismaya was running last.

Third leg runner Jisna collided with a second leg runner of another country after collecting the baton from Vismaya, leading to the loss of crucial time though India was at the last spot by that time.

Noah recovered a bit but India ended at seventh in the end, ahead of Brazil. United States took the gold in world record timing of 3:09.34 in the event which was making debut in the championships.