Rio de Janeiro, Aug 13:
Woman steeplechaser Lalita Babar clipped nearly seven seconds off the existing national mark in the qualifiers to make a storming entry into the final of the gruelling event in the Olympic Games here today, but compatriot Sudha Singh fell by the wayside and exited.
Lalita clocked a national mark of 9 minutes, 19.76 seconds while finishing fourth in heat 2 and progressed to the final, scheduled on August 15, on the basis of being among the fastest six from the rest who did not directly qualify from the three preliminary heats.
Lalita, thus, became the second Indian woman to qualify for an Olympic final in track and field after ‘Payyoli Express’ P T Usha in the 400m hurdles in 1984 at Los Angeles.
Vikas Gowda, in men’s discus, was also the last from the country to make the finals in athletics — in 2008 at Beijing.
Sudha, on the other hand, performed far below her best to finish a distant 9th in heat 3 with a poor time of 9:43.29, which gave her the 30th spot out of 52 in the qualifiers.
Lalita will be seen in the final on August 15.
The third Indian athlete in fray in today’s action, Nirmala Sheoran, looked totally out of depth in the women’s 400m preliminaries in which she finished a distant 35th overall after ending up sixth out of seven runners in heat 1 in 53.03 seconds. (PTI)
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