Para World Athletics Championships: Long Jumper Vikas tries hard but falls short of podium

NEW DELHI: Vikas strained his every sinew to ensure that the Indian Tricolour would go up during a medal ceremony in the Para World Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Sunday.

But his best efforts at the Long Jump pit in the men’s T47 final went in vain as he finished sixth, as per a release from the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI).

The 23-year-old Vikas earned himself three more attempts with a heart-warming 6.69m jump on his third try to lift himself to the sixth position. His team-mate, Ajay Singh, was unable to improve on his season’s best jump of 6.31m and finished 10th. Only the top eight athletes were given the opportunity to stay in the competition.

To his credit, Vikas strove hard till his very last jump to breach the 7.00m mark for the first time in his life.

He strung together a series of final three jumps over 6.84m, 6.88m and 6.96m, but those were not enough to lift him from sixth place. In fact, he could have finished fifth if he had a better countback than Serbia’s Nemanja Matijasevic. The bronze went at 7.19m.

Coming after the opening day when India won one gold, silver and bronze each, Sunday was disappointing for the eager home crowd.

Eventually, only Vikas sustained the home team’s hopes till late in the evening. By the time he took his last attempt, F57 Javelin Throwers and T37 sprinters, as well as fellow long jumper Ajay Singh, had finished out of the podium.

Praveen Kumar and Hem Chandra took the ninth and 10th spots in the men’s Javelin Throw F57 competition, while sprinters Rakeshbhai Bhatt and Shreyansh Trivedi could draw pride from competing in the men’s 100m T37 race that saw a new Championship Record being set by Brazilian Ricardo Gomes de Mendonca.

The results (Indians only):

Men

100m T37: 7. Rakeshbhai Bhatt 11.88 seconds; 8. Shreyansh Trivedi 12.18.

Long Jump T47: 6. Vikas 6.96m; 10. Ajay Singh 6.31.

Javelin Throw F57: 9. Praveen Kumar 41.92m; 10. Hem Chandra 41.17. (ANI)