At the Rio Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Lalita Babar today qualified for the women’s 3000 metre steeplechase final after finishing fourth in the qualifying heat 2 with a national record time. Babar put up an impressive show shattering the national record, despite stumbling early in her race and finishing in fourth place in her heat with a timing of 9:19.76. She qualified as a lucky loser, managing to squeeze in among the next top eight fastest outside the top two of each heat who qualified directly. Had she ran in the third heat she would have qualified as the victor of that race. Lalita will be participating in the finals on August 15. What makes her achievement the talk of the town is the fact that she is the first track and field finalist for India since PT Usha, who had qualified in the 1984 Games. Men’s quarter-miler Muhammad Anas also crashed out at the heats while long jumper Ankit Sharma failed to advance to the final round to pile on the Indian misery.
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She has a personal best of 9:05.36 which she clocked in September previous year.
Babar will be up against the likes of Emma Coburn of United States with a personal best of 9:10.76 (fifth in last World Championships with 9:21.78), 2012 London Games silver medallist Sofia Assefa of Ethiopia (personal best 9:09.00 and season best of 9:18.16) and World Championships bronze medallist Gesa Felicitas Krause of Germany (personal best of 9:18.85).
24-year-old last World Championships gold victor Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkomoi of Kenya is also in the fray with a personal best of 9:00.01 which she clocked in She Eugene in May. She followed it up with a gold medal at the 2015 Asian Championships clocking 9:34.13 and breaking the national record. The same can be said about the “The Payyoli Express’ who won all her global medals in the Asian Games”.
Phyllis Francis of the U.S. topped the qualifiers with a time of 50.58 seconds.
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“Felt sad for Sudha who could not qualify”.
