Javelin thrower Annu Rani qualifies for the Olympics based on international rankings

Annu Rani, the national record holder in the women’s javelin throw, has qualified for the Olympics as per World Rankings.

On Thursday, the quota places were officially confirmed by World Athletics. Sprinter Dutee Chand will compete in the 100m and 200m events while Annu Rani will compete in the Women’s Javelin Throw and MP Jabir will compete in the 400m hurdles.

Advertisement

Annu Rani, the national record holder in the Women’s Javelin Throw recently failed in her final attempt to break the Olympic qualification mark at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Patiala, as she could only make the best effort of 62.83m to clinch the gold. The automatic qualification mark for the Olympics was 64 metres.

Rani took silver in the Asian Championships in 2019 and bronze at the Asian Games in 2014. She was also advanced to the event’s final at the 2019 Athletics World Championships.

At the same tournament, Dutee Chand shattered the national record in the women’s 100m. She finished the race in 11.17 seconds. The Olympic Qualification time for the race was 11.15 seconds. Dutee had previously set the mark at 11.21 seconds.

The Odisha athlete was projected to qualify for Tokyo based on rankings as the World Rankings pathway offered 22 berths in the 100m and 15 spots in the 200m.

Besides these three, the 4x400m mixed relay squad, Avinash Sable (men’s 3000m Steeplechase), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men’s Shot Put), Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh (men’s Javelin Throw), M Sreeshankar (men’s Long Jump), Kamalpreet Kaur (women’s Discus Throw) and race walkers KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohila (men) and Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami (women) are the athletes who have already qualified for the Olympics Games.