Swiss meet: Animesh Kujur finishes ninth overall in 200m

Kolkata: After making his debut at Diamond League in Monaco in 200m in the U23 category last week, Animesh Kujur had his eyes on qualifying for World Championships to be held in Tokyo in September.However, he couldn’t give his best at Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern at Stadion Allmend in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Tuesday night.Running in Heat A, the 21-year-old finished sixth with a timing of 20.79 seconds. It was quite a below-par show considering he ran 20.55 seconds in Monaco and has a PB of 20.32 seconds. As a result, overall he finished ninth in the standings.Manikanta Hoblidhar also competed in another heat and finished second. His time though was just 21.36 seconds as a result of which he was 16th overall.Earlier in the day, Kujur, along with four other Indians, competed in the 100m and all of them ran in the Heat C. Kujur did well to cross the finish line in second place clocking 10.28 seconds — his third-best personal time — that also helped him finish eighth overall.As for the four other Indians, Gurindervir Singh, who has a PB of 10.20 seconds and briefly held the 100m NR, came fourth in the heats with a timing of 10.54 seconds. Hoblidhar, also a former 100m NR holder, followed suit with a time of 10.61 seconds. Odisha’s DM Jayram and Lalu Prasad Bhoi were the next to cross the line. Jayram ran a PB of 10.65 seconds while Lalu was just 0.02 seconds slower.Among the other Indians competing in the tournament, Moumita Mondal came seventh in long jump with a best effort of 6.34m. Shaili Singh, who has PB of 6.76m, also competed but failed to impress as she finished a lowly 10th with a jump of 6.13m.Moumita also took part in the 100m hurdles and finished 13th overall with a timing of 13.48 seconds. She however did cross the finish line in first place in her heats.In men’s javelin throw Sahil Silwal came seventh with a best effort of 77.75m. Meanwhile, in the women’s section Karishma Sanil, who won gold in the UAE Athletics Women’s Gala at Dubai Police Club Stadium earlier this year, was 12th with a best throw of 53.93m — which was also her last throw of the night.