World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024: Jeswin Aldrin, Praveen Chithravel endure tough outing

Only two Indian athletes competed in Glasgow; Jeswin Aldrin finished 13th in the long jump while Praveen Chithravel was 11th in the triple jump.

2 minBy Utathya Nag
Jeswin Aldrin, India long jump athlete

(Getty Images)

India drew a blank at the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland after Jeswin Aldrin finished 13th in the men’s long jump event and Praveen Chithravel placed 11th in the triple jump.

The two were the only Indian athletes competing at the 19th edition of the World Indoor Athletics Championships.

In the men’s long jump competition, Jeswin Aldrin, competing in a 16-man field, logged 7.69m to finish 13th. The Indian athlete achieved his mark in his first attempt and fouled the next two to finish outside the top eight and was eliminated.

Aldrin’s attempt was well short of his personal best of 7.97m - also the indoor national record - which won him the silver medal at the Asian Indoor Championships last year. The 22-year-old also holds India’s outdoor national record of 8.42m. Last month, Aldrin jumped 7.83m to finish third at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting in Serbia.

Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, the reigning Olympic and world champion, successfully defended his long jump indoor title in Glasgow but only just. Both Tentoglou and Italy’s Mattia Furlani, the eventual silver medallist, recorded 8.22m but the tie-break went the Greek jumper’s way as he had the better second-best jump.

Jamaica’s Carey McLeod won bronze with 8.21m.

Later in the day, Praveen Chithravel came 11th in a 14-man men’s triple jump field.

Chithravel, who holds the national record of 17.37m, gradually improved as the competition progressed. After logging 15.76m and 16.29m with his first two jumps, the Indian athlete managed a season’s best 16.45m with his third attempt but couldn’t avoid elimination.

Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso, the 2023 outdoor world champion, took the gold in the event with a season’s best jump of 17.53m while Algeria’s Yasser Mohammed Triki (17.35m) and Portugal’s Tiago Pereira (17.08m) clinched the silver and bronze, respectively.

Last year’s champion Lazaro Martinez of Cuba finished a lowly eighth.

India are yet to win a medal at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

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