World Athletics Championships Doha 2019: Jabir finishes 3rd

Bengaluru/Doha, September 28: Asian bronze medallist M P Jabir made it to the semifinals of the 400M hurdles on the opening day of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 at the Khalifa International Stadium.

Jabir finished third in the heat number one and 11th overall in men's 400M hurdles with a time of 49.62sec to qualify for the semifinals to be held in Qatar's capital city on Saturday (September 28).

He has a season's and personal best of 49.13.

#MPJabir qualifies for the semifinals in the men’s 400m hurdles at the World #Athletics Championships after finishing 3rd in Heat 1 with a time of 49.62 seconds. 👏🏻🏃🏻‍♂️🇮🇳

We wish him the best! 👍🏻@KirenRijiju | @RijijuOffice | @DGSAI | @IndiaSports | @afiindia | #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/2YDGFZIGyA
— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) September 27, 2019

India's another 400M hurdler Dharun Ayyasamy, the national record holder, tumbled after the last hurdle in his heat to fail to qualify for the semifinals.

Ayyasamy could only clock 50.55 as he lost precious time after hitting the final hurdle. He finished sixth in heat number five and 27th overall to miss out of the semifinals.

Ayyasamy, who had recovered from an injury recently, has a personal and season's best of 48.80.

The first four in each of the five heats and the next four fastest qualify for the 400M hurdles semifinals.

The first Indian to take the field was long jumper M Sreeshankar, who has a personal best and national record of 8.20M. He began with a 7.52M before clearing 7.62M. He then fouled his third and final jump to end his campaign in disappointment.

The automatic mark for the finals was set at 8.15M but only one jumper could touch it. The 11 other best performers went through to the finals with the least distance making the cut was 7.89M.

Sreeshankar's 7.62M effort here was his second-worst this season. He had 7.53M in the qualifying round of the National Inter-State Championships in Lucknow last month.

Sreeshankar was, however, placed second last in terms of the season's best among the 27 jumpers who took part in the qualification round.