New Delhi: After a promising start, India's track and field athletes faced a reality check on the final day of the Federation Cup in Ranchi, with several athletes missing the Commonwealth Games cut.
The biggest disappointment came in the men's javelin event, where only three athletes managed to breach the 80m mark in the absence of double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra.
Shivam Lohakare of Maharashtra won the event with a best of 81.71m but fell short of the CWG entry standard of 82.61m. Yashvir Singh was next with 80.80m, followed by Rohit Yadav with 80.40m.
Sachin Yadav, who finished fifth at the Tokyo World Championships last year, came in fifth with a throw of 79.07m. Kishore Jena, the Asian Games silver medallist, struggled to a seventh-place finish with a throw of 73.42m.
However, there were some positives, with national record holder Praveen Chithravel comfortably surpassing the Glasgow mark of 16.89m in the triple jump event with a leap of 17.08m. Abdulla Aboobacker was next with 16.63m, followed by Gailey Venister of Tamil Nadu with 16.37m.
India also had a good outing in the shot put event, with Samardeep Singh Gill punching his ticket to his first CWG with a throw of 20.46m, while national record holder Tajinderpal Toor finished second with 20.07m.
Meanwhile, hurdlers Yashas P of Karnataka and Santhosh Kumar T of NCOE Trivandrum breached the CWG qualifying mark in the men's 400m hurdles, with Yashas winning with a time of 49.00s and Santhosh clocking 49.06s.
