Kipyegon reigns, high jumper Kushare finishes sixth in final

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- N Ananthanarayanan

High jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare ticked two important boxes at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, commendable after India's subdued performances until Tuesday evening.

The 30-year-old, the first Indian high jumper to feature in the global event, cleared a personal best of 2.28m to finish a creditable sixth in the final, having qualified for the medal round clearing 2.25m in the preliminary round.

The jumper from Nashik in Maharashtra mimicked drawing the sword during the announcement before the competition, and did the Ravindra Jadeja-like sword flash after failing in his third and final attempt at 2.31. It would have been too much to ask after the bar had been raised by three centimetres, but Kushare had held his nerves, after two failures, going past his personal best of 2.27m in the previous round.

The 2.28m is a centimetre short of Tejaswin Shankar's national record of 2.29m, which has stood since April, 2018. Kushare can be proud after a consistent season in which he twice cleared 2.26m. On Tuesday at the Japan National Stadium, only four competitors jumped higher than him. New Zealand's Olympic champion Hamish Kerr (2.36m) won gold, South Korea's Woo Sangh-yeok (2.34) the silver and Czech Jan Stefela (2.31) the bronze.