Despite rewriting national records, Tejas Shirse, Jyothi Yarraji fall short of Paris Olympics 2024 qualification

Indian runners Tejas Shirse and Jyothi Yarraji rewrote national records but still fell agonisingly short of qualifying for the Paris Olympics 2024. The runners recorded scintillating performances at the Montonet GP, a World Athletics Continental Tour (Challenger) meeting in Jyvaskyla, Finland.

While Shirse broke a seven-year-old, Indian men’s 110m record, Jyothi equalled her own national record.

Shirse clocked 13.41s to finish the 110m hurdles event, surpassing the previous national record of 13.48s held by Siddhanth Thingalaya. Although Shirse won the gold medal, he was behind the automatic qualifying mark for the Paris Olympics in the men’s 110m hurdles event, which is 13.27s.

In the same event, Jyothi equalled her own national record in the women’s 100m hurdles event.

Jyothi clocked 12.78s, which is her own national record that she set at the World University Games in Chengdu, China, last year. The timing was just one hundredth of a second less than the automatic Olympics qualifying time of 12.77s.

The 24-year-old Jyothi, who had won the silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023, was in her elements and looked good to set a new national record but ended up hitting the final hurdle, which meant she lost the precious hundredth of a second to qualify for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, in the 100m event, Animesh Kujur too clocked a personal best of 10.39s but he was way behind the Olympic qualification mark of 10s. Amlan Borgohain, who finished fourth in the men’s 100m event, clocked 10.54s, missing the cut for the Paris Olympics 2024.

Mohammed Afsal won the men’s 800m event with a time of 1:48.91s while Pavana Nagaraj came in fifth in the long jump event. The 18-year-old Pavana leaped 6.06m, a new personal best for her.

Elsewhere, at the Trond Mohn Games, which is also a World Athletics Continental Tour (silver) event in Bergen, Norway, Indian long jumper Shaili Singh finished second at 6.12m.