Amanat Kamboj makes women’s discus throw final at U20 Athletics Worlds
Eugene, Aug 6 (IANS) Indian thrower Amanat Kamboj made it to the women’s discus throw final at the U20 World Athletics Championships final with a season’s best throw on Thursday.
Amanat, who won the Asian U20 gold in discus with a best effort of 52.24 in May this year, recorded the throw of 52.58 to finish sixth among the world’s best U20 throwers in the qualifications.
She became the third Indian to enter their respective finals after Ashish Yadav and T. Dharanidharan made it through to the men’s javelin final.
Ashish topped his group with a best throw of 69.87m, while Dharanidharan recorded 68.07m to finish in his group to make the final. Overall, Ashish finished second in the qualification, while Dharanidharan placed 12th.
South African U20 javelin champion Jan-Hendrik Heymans started off hot in Eugene, hitting the automatic qualifying mark on his first throw with 76.02m. That was more than six metres farther than the next best throw, and the sole attempt beyond 70 metres.
Behind Heymans, three athletes surpassed 69 metres, including India’s Ashish (69.87m), Poland’s Aleksander Wojna (69.80m) and China’s Yang Zhaoyi (69.80m), setting the stage for a final that could feature a tight medal fight. USA’s Nolan Carey, who set a personal best of 74.72m in May and won the US U20 title in Eugene in July, did not advance.
The women’s dicuss throw final is scheduled for Saturday, while the men’s javelin will be held
In the men’s 800m, Mogali Venkatram clocked 1:52.81 to finish third in his heat and booked a spot in the semifinal, while Uwin Anand ran a quicker 1:52.37 but was edged out in a faster heat.
The mixed 4×400m relay team Piyush Raj, Tahura Khatun, Sayed Sabeer and Thiya Arumugam clocked the season-best 3:22.85 but could not make it to the final as they finished outside the best nine.
A 36-member Indian track and field contingent is competing at the World Athletics U20 Championships 2026, running from August 5 to 9 at Hayward Field in Oregon.
–IANS
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