World Athletics Championships 2023: Sarvesh Kushare, Santhosh crash out of high jump and 400m hurdles qualification

India’s poor run in the World Athletics Championships 2023 extended to yet another day.

After a disappointing opening day, India endured more disappointment on day 2 of the World Athletics Championships 2023 as Sarvesh Kushare and Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan failed to advance to the finals of their respective events and were eliminated from the heats. Sarvesh Kushare in men’s high jump and Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan in 400m hurdles were the only two Indian athletes in action on the second day of the Championships.

The basis for Kushare’s World Athletics Championships 2023 qualification was his ranking, a result of his silver medal performance at the Asian Athletics Championships, where he achieved a season best jump of 2.26m. Similarly, Tamilarasan’s qualification hinged on his World Ranking which improved after his outstanding personal achievement of 49.09s that earned him a bronze medal at the Asian Championships.

Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan was joined by Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm in the heats. The competition’s format dictated that only the top four runners from each heat, along with the four fastest losers, would advance to the semi-finals. Santhosh, who was positioned in lane nine, secured a seventh-place finish in his 400m hurdles heat, clocking 50.46s, which was well below his personal best of 49.09s.

The race saw world record holder Warholm leading for the majority of the race before easing off towards the end and ultimately finishing in second place with a time of 48.76s. He was just behind Frenchman Wilfried Happio, who clinched victory with a time of 48.63s.

Up until now, none of the Indian athletes have succeeded in advancing beyond the qualifying round. It includes top Indian medal hopes as Avinash Sable, Shaili Singh, Praveen Chithravel, Eldhose Paul, and Abdulla Aboobacker.

For the men’s high jump qualification event, Sarvesh Kushare was placed in group B. To automatically qualify with a mark of 2.30m, Kushare needed to surpass Tejaswin Shankar’s national record of 2.29m. His goal was to secure a position within the top 12 in order to advance to the final.

Kushare made a strong start by successfully clearing the opening height of 2.14m on his first attempt. However, he encountered a setback when he failed to clear the 2.18m height in his initial attempt. Eventually, Santhosh did clear the same height on his second attempt.

Next, he cleared a height of 2.22m with ease but faltered at 2.25m height and failed to clear it in three attempts to eventually finish as 20th in the qualifying round.

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