Eugene, July 16: It’s the seventh place! Or, oh! it’s only the seventh place. The Hamletian arguments popped up almost as soon M Sreeshankar finished seventh in the men’s Long Jump in the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at the hallowed Howard Field here on Saturday.
His best effort, a 7.96m leap that put him in the lead after the opening round, was quickly overshadowed by a series of jumpers. Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) produced the most outstanding series of jumps after opening with a foul to hold the lead right till the final round when Chinese Jianan Wang went past him to 8.36m to claim gold.
It was one such big jump that Sreeshankar kept seeking all evening without much success. In fact, the eagerness to get past the 8.00m mark and closer to 8.15 seemed to cause him to overstep on three of his six tries. He denied that it was pressure that led him to make these tiny mistakes on the runway but the nip in the air that made it tough for him
“I know that this would be a high quality competition. Obviously, there would be some big jumps. I needed to come up with a good one myself. After 7.96, I went for big ones on my second and third attempts. At this stage, you cannot be sitting back without taking chances. Unfortunately, there were a couple of small fouls,” he said.
Visa delays meant he had to skip the chance to compete in the Diamond League. But Sreeshankar believes if he matches wits with the best in the world, he can nail a perfect jump any time. “Today is a step towards the Paris Olympic Games,” he said, drawing some consolation. He hopes that the big jump on an international stage will not elude him for long.
At the other end of the spectrum – and it is unfair to seem to compare – on Saturday was Poland’s amazing Pawel Fajdek who won his fifth successive World title. The 33-year-old, keen to rewrite the World Championships mark, nailed his longest throw in World Championships to extend his hold in the crown.
“This was the competition which matters the most this year so I am glad that the major gold is in my hand for the fifth time. Now, we have to get back to do the next hard job towards the next championship. Next year, it will be another chance in Budapest so I have the chance to prepare myself even better,” he said.
Late in the evening, the United States of America picked up two gold medals in women’s Shot Put and the men’s 100m sprint through Chase Ealey and Fed Kerley respectively. USA’s sweep of the 100m medals was the talking point as people wound their way home. It seemed as if eons had passed since Letensebet Gidey (Ethiopia) came up with a sprint over the final 300m to retain her position in front of a splendid field of runners.
Parul Goswami but her 12th place finish among 14 starters in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase heats, though with a personal best time of 9:38.09 was never going to be enough for her to even sniff a place in the final. She finished 31st among 42 starters. Now 27, she may find even Lalita Babar’s National Record of 9:19.76 a bit too tough to rewrite.
Clearly, MP Jabir was not at his best in his 400m Hurdles heats. After being fifth midway on the second bend, he trailed off to finish seventh and last. His time of 50.76 seconds put him in the 31st place among 36 starters. There is some soul searching to be done, considering that this time is not even close to his top 10 times in the event.
The results (finals):
Men
100m: 1. Fred Kerley (USA) 9.86 seconds; 2. Marvin Bracy (USA) 9.88; 3. Trayvon Bromwell (USA) 9.88.
Long Jump: 1. Jianan Wang (China) 8.36m; 2. Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) 8.32; 3. Simon Ehammer (Switzerland) 8.16. 7. M Sreeshankar 7.96.
Hammer Throw: 1. Pawel Fajdek (Poland) 81.98m; 2. Wojciech Nowicki (Poland) 81.03; 3. Elvind Henriksen (Norway) 80.87.
Women
10000m: 1. Letensebet Gidey (Ethiopia) 30:09.94; 2. Hellen Obiri (Kenya) 30:10.02; 3. Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi (Kenya) 30:10.07
Shot Put: 1. Chase Ealey (USA) 20.49m; 2. Lijao Gong (China) 20.39; 3. Jessica Schilder (Netherlands) 19.77
