Doha: India’s Asian Games gold medallist duo of shot putter Tejinder Pal Singh Toor and 1500m runner Jinson Johnson crashed out of the World Athletics Championships after failing to qualify for the finals of their respective events.
The 24-year-old Toor produced a season’s best effort of 20.43m to finish eighth in the Group B qualification round and 18th overall out of 34 competitors while Jinson ran a below par 3 minutes 39.86 seconds to end 10th in his first round heats on Thursday.
He finished 34th overall out of 43 runners. Toor was the first to take the field but with eight shot putters from Group A having already touched the automatic final round qualifying mark of 20.90m, it was a difficult task for Toor to make the cut. The Punjab athlete has a personal best of 20.75m, which is also a national record, He opened with a 20.43m, bettering his earlier season’s best of 20.36m but fouled his next attempt.
Pressure mounted on him as three competitors from Group B touched the automatic qualifying mark in their first attempt while another shot putter did the same in the second round. That meant Toor had to touch 20.90m and rewrite his own national record in his third and final attempt if he has to qualify for the finals. But he could only come up with a 19.55m effort to crash out of the championships. Those who touched 20.90m or at least 12 best performers were to make it to the final and eventually 12 shot putters from Group A and Group B combined were able to cross the automatic qualifying mark for the finals.
Reigning world champion and 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist Tomas Walsh of New Zealand led the finalists with a throw of 21.92m. Toor had won a gold at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta with his national record-setting effort of 20.75m. He also won a gold at the Asian Championships at the same venue in April with a throw of 20.22m. There was more disappointment in store for India as the 28-year-old Jinson, who broke his own national record just last month with a time of 3:35.24, failed to preserve enough energy for the home stretch. He was overtaken by one competitor after another as he finished more than four seconds outside his best timing. He was among the leading five till the final bell but lost steam towards the end. The top six from each of the three heats and the next six fastest advanced to the semifinals.