Sarvesh Kushare qualifies for high jump final at World Championships

Sarvesh Kushare became the first Indian to reach the high jump final at the World Athletics Championships, while Gulveer Singh, despite holding the national record, finished a disappointing 16th in the 10,000m race

Tokyo: Sarvesh Anil Kushare on Sunday became the first Indian to qualify for the high jump final at the World Athletics Championships, while national record holder Gulveer Singh finished 16th in the 10,000m race with a below-par performance.

The 30-year-old Kushare, who entered the championships ranked 34th among 36 competing athletes through the world ranking quota, scaled 2.25m to finish joint seventh in Group B of the qualification round. He ended at joint ninth in the overall rankings across both groups.

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Those who touched the automatic qualifying mark of 2.30m or ranked among the top 12 best performers advanced to the final round, scheduled for Tuesday.

Kushare has a personal best of 2.27m (recorded in 2022) and a season best of 2.26m. He won a silver medal at the 2023 Asian Championships.

He has been a consistent performer this season, having dipped below 2.19m only once in 10 outings before Sunday.

The son of an onion farmer from a small village near Nashik in Maharashtra, Sarvesh used to practice on makeshift fodder mats early in his career. He went on to become the first Indian high jumper to qualify for the Olympics at the 2024 Paris Games.

However, he failed to get past the qualification round in the French capital last year.

In the men’s 10,000m race, Gulveer Singh could not make a final push after staying in the leading group of more than 10 runners till the last two laps of the competitive race.

The 27-year-old Indian completed the race in 29 minutes 13.33 seconds under humid conditions — well below his personal best of 27:00.22, which he had clocked in March.

The 10,000m is not Gulveer’s strongest event, although he holds the national record. He qualified for the event at the last minute after higher-ranked athletes pulled out.

Gulveer will compete in his main event — the 5,000m — on September 19. He also holds the national record in that event with a time of 12:59.77 and had qualified by breaching the direct qualifying mark of 13:01.00.