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Aboobacker expressed his satisfaction saying he was elated with his 17.22 m effort despite missing the Tokyo World Championship Qualification mark.
Abdulla Aboobacker. (X)
Ace triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker won gold with a leap of 17.19m at the fourth edition of the Indian Open Jumps but missed the Tokyo World Championship qualifying mark of 17.22m on Saturday.
Despite having two legal jumps out of six attempts, Aboobacker expressed his satisfaction saying he was elated to have crossed the 17m mark in March.
“I could have done better. But crossing the 17m mark was a good start to the season,” he said after the event.
The main goal, said the Indian Air Force jumper, was to achieve an automatic qualification mark of 17.22m to book a ticket to the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships in September.
He missed the World Athletics entry standard, but was hopeful of achieving his goal in his next competition.
“I’m confident of improving by personal best of 17.19m next month,” he added,
The eventual winner had a series of 16.64m, no mark, no mark, no mark, no mark and 17.19m.
Tamil Nadu’s talented Asian Games bronze medallist Praveen Chithravel took home the silver medal with a jump of 17.13m.
He had a series of 16.71m, 16.20m, no mark, 17.13m, no mark and 16.71m.
Chithravel also holds the national record of 17.37m set in May 2023 in Cuba. The bronze medal went to Haryana’s Ashok Yadav whose best jump was 15.94m.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)