They were dealing with pressure of their own and yet, at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in Eugene on Friday, it seemed as if Avinash Sable and M Sreeshankar did not let pressure get to them. Instead, they made it work in their favour as they claimed berths in the finals of the men’s 3000m Steeplechase and Long Jump finals respectively.
On a day when Kimbely Garcia Leon gave Peru its first World Championships gold in the women’s 20km walk, Japan picked up a 1-2 through Toshikazu Yamanishi and Koki Ikeda in the men’s 20km walk and Dominican Republic’s 4×400 Mixed Relay anchor Fiordaliza Cofil stunned the home crowd and the US team, Sable and Sreeshankar kept India’s spirit high.
Of course, there was so much emotion that spilled over on the opening day. Track legend Allyson Felix ended her amazing career with a bronze medal in the 4x400m Mixed Relay, putting a comforting arm around her American team-mate Kennedy Simon who was devastated after conceding a sizable lead over the last 100m.
High Jumpers Mutaz Barshim (Qatar) and Gianmarco Tamberi (Italy), who chose to be joint gold medalists in the Olympic Games rather than pursue a jump off, continued to produce drama. To be sure it was of the contrasting variety on Friday. The Qatari qualified for the final rather effortlessly while Tamberi needed three attempts each at 2.25m and 2.28m to get there.
American Steeplechaser Evan Jager, a 2016 Olympic Games silver medalist and a 2017 World Championships bronze winner, returned to the national team after four years and finished second in the heat behind Ethiopia’s World No. 3 Hailemariyam Amare. Kenya’s Benjamin Kigen struggled on the final water jump (as seen in the photograph above), allowing Sable to sprint to third place.
In the past, some front-running Indian athletes were unable to hold on to their leads and faded away during the race. Not Sable. When he seemed to run out of gas in his tank, like athlete who negotiate longer distance do, he summoned energy from the mind’s deepest recesses to finish third. He had the second best final 100m in his heats, a 14.81second effort to show his kick.
He needed it to keep Eritrea’s fast-finishing Yemane Haileselassie in fourth place. Though the third heats was run at a faster pace than the second, it would have been tough for an athlete to know how the odds would be stacked up in determining the six fastest runners other than the nine automatic qualifiers from the three heats.
It would be unfair to expect him to finish on the podium – seven of the world’s top 10 ranked Steeplechases feature in the final – but a push towards the 8:10 mark, if not the 8:00 mark will be inspirational. That he has caused such expectations is in itself creditable in a nation that is unfamiliar with sending out finalists in an individual track event at the global level.
In Sreeshankar’s case, even if he had a good competition in Greece, the knowledge that Indians would expect him to make it to the final would have been enough for the mind to be cluttered by myriad thoughts. The 7.69m jump in Tokyo was so inadequate that nothing less than 8.00m on Friday evening would have sufficed to drive the demons away from his own mind.
Sreeshankar’s self-belief and his positive mindset not only saw him breach the 8.00m mark but also place him second in his group. He lined up a jump that would have gained him automatic qualification for the final but ended up committing a foul. He will be hoping to ease his nerves in the past ahead of the final where one big jump could do the trick.
There was disappointment for India elsewhere in track and field.
Race Walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar were not expected to finish very high but in extremely hot conditions in the afternoon, they were unable to bring their A game to the contest. Similarly, Long Jumpers Jeswin Aldrin and Muhammed Anees Yahiya – 8.00m jumpers at home – crashed out of the competition without even sniffing the final.
The bigger setback was Tajinderpal Singh Toor’s decision to retire from the men’s Shot Put contest. A adductor muscle strain a few days ago could have been the reason he decided not to visit the putting circle after the practice round. He had seemed to arrest the downward spiral, caused by a wrist injury, but may end up taking more time to regain form and shape.
There are three Indians on view on Saturday. Not many would pencil down women’s 3000m Steeplechase Parul Chaudhury and men’s 400m Hurdles specialist MP Jabir as likely to progress beyond the opening round. But late in the evening, Sreeshankar will return to the Long Jump runway and pit with the find hope that he could surprise many higher ranked jumpers.
The results (finals):
Men
20km Race Walk: 1. Toshikazu Yaminsh (Japan) 1:19:07; 2. Koki Ikeda (Japan) 1:19:14; 3. Perseus Karlstrom (Sweden) 1:19:18.
Women
20km Race Walk: 1. Kimberly Garcia Leon (Peru) 1:26:58; 2. Katarzyna Zdzieblo (Poland) 1:27:31; 3. Shije Qieyang (China) 1:27:56.
Mixed
4x400m Relay: 1. Dominican Republic (Lidio Andrez Feliz, Marileidy Paulino, Alexander Ogando, Fioraliza Cofil) 3:09.82; 2. Netherlands 3:09.90; 3. United States of America 3:10.16.
