On Saturday, D.P. Manu, placed 14th on the Road to Paris Olympics chart, won the javelin gold at the Taiwan Athletics Open in Taipei with an 81.58m throw in the final round.
The Asian silver medalist, World No. 12, and sixth-place finisher at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, accomplished three 80-plus throws on the World Athletics Continental Tour (bronze event). Taiwan’s Chao Tsun-Cheng, an Asian record holder and the first Asian to surpass 90m (PB 91.36m, 2017), won silver with a 76.21m throw.
The javelin event at the Paris Olympics will include 32 participants, nine of whom have already met the automatic qualifying standard of 85.50m, including Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena from India. Others will attempt to qualify via global rankings.
Meanwhile, V.K. Vismaya, who won gold in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, ran a season-best 53.49 seconds and took home a bronze in the women’s 400m. Tharushi Karunarathna of Sri Lanka won gold in 52.48 seconds, whereas Nadeesha Ramanayake finished fourth (53.93 seconds).
In other events, Nithya Ramraj won silver in the women’s 100m hurdles in 13.23. Meanwhile, Rosy Meena Paulraj placed sixth in the women’s pole vault with 3.75 metres.
