Paris 2024 Olympics: Jyothi Yarraji moves into repechage in 100m hurdles; Annu Rani out in javelin throw 

Jyothi Yarraji advanced to the repechage round in the women’s 100m hurdles after finishing seventh in her heat at the Paris 2024 Olympics while Annu Rani was eliminated in the women’s javelin throw event at the Stade de France on Wednesday.

Yarraji, who holds the Indian national record of 12.78 seconds in the women’s 100m hurdles, crossed the finish line in 13.16s for seventh place in heat 4. Overall, she finished 35th in the field of 40 hurdlers on her Olympic debut.

World champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica topped the heat in 12.59. Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn topped the overall heats with a time of 12.42s.

The top three in each of the five heats and the next three fastest advance to the semi-final while all other finishers move to the repechage round.

Jyothi Yarraji, the first Indian woman to race in the 100m hurdles at the Olympics, will compete in the repechage round on Thursday for a place in the semi-final.

In the women’s javelin throw, Annu Rani finished 15th in Group A and failed to qualify for the final. The Asian Games champion, who set the national record of 63.82m in 2022, needed to hit 62m for direct qualification or be among the top 12 from both groups. She ultimately finished 20th out of a field of 23 athletes.

Rani’s best throw of 55.81m on Wednesday came off her first attempt. Her next two attempts were 53.22m and 53.55m. South Africa’s Jo-Ane van Dyk, the African Games champion, hit a personal best of 64.22 to top Group A while Poland’s Maria Andrejczyk topped the overall field with an effort of 65.52m

The men’s high jump saw Sarvesh Kushare finish 13th in Group B with an effort of 2.15m. He made three attempts for 2.20 but could not make it through. India’s national record stands at 2.29m achieved by Tejaswin Shankar in 2018.

Kushare, whose personal best is 2.25m, needed to match the direct qualification mark of 2.29m to make the final or be in the top 12 across the two groups to progress. He finished 25th from the field of 31.

Meanwhile, Priyanka Goswami and Suraj Panwar did not finish (DNF) the marathon race walk mixed relay final. The Indian pair pulled out after three legs at the 33.4km mark. The total length of the race was 42.195km. A total of 25 pairs competed in the event and the Indian pair was 24th when they pulled out.

Spain’s Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez emerged as the first Olympic champions in the marathon race walk mixed relay event by clocking 2:50:31.